BLINDNESS

transient or continuing inability to see with one or both eyes. Transient blindness, in this instance called blackout, affects such persons as aviators or astronauts if they undergo acceleration that exerts its force on them in the direction from head to foot and if the force reaches five or six times the force of gravity. Transient blindness may also be a feature of kidney disease (glomerulonephritis). Continuing blindness may arise from injury or disease that affects any of the structures or substances that light passes through on its way to the retina, the layer of light-sensitive tissue that lines the back and sides of the eye, or the causes of the blindness may lie in injuries or disease of the retina itself, of the optic nerve, or of the visual centres of the brain. A number of infectious diseases, including the venereal diseases, can cause blindness. Gonorrhea organisms in the pregnant woman, for example, caused blindness in infants until the practice of routinely putting silver nitrate drops in infants' eyes at birth was instituted. Untreated syphilis in the pregnant woman can cause imperfect development of infants' eyes, with resultant blindness, as can German measles in the pregnant woman during the first three months of pregnancy. Trachoma and leprosy frequently cause blindness in those parts of the world in which the diseases are prevalent. Other infections that can be the cause of blindness include tuberculosis, meningitis, measles, diphtheria, and scarlet fever. Onchocerciasis, or infestation with the roundworm Onchocerca volvulus, occasionally results in blindness if the worms invade the eyes. Certain noninfectious systemic diseases may cause blindness. Diabetes mellitus, for example, an endocrine disease arising from insufficient secretion or utilization of insulin, may damage the retina or cause cataractsopacity of the crystalline lenswhich prevent light from reaching the retina. Atherosclerosis, the form of arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) in which fatty plaques form in the linings of blood vessels, may, by blocking the blood supply, cause atrophy of retinal tissue and the optic nerve. Diseases springing from nutritional deficiencies may cause blindness by making the corneathe normally transparent section of the globe in front of the pupil and irissoft and cloudy. Diseases of the eye itself that may bring blindness include cataract (q.v.)opacity of the crystalline lensand glaucoma (q.v.), the effect of intraocular pressure upon the optic nerve. See also visual-field defect.