Report of the Committee of the New York State Medical Society on the Causes and Prevention of Blindness

Lucien Howe, Hereditary Blindness, and the Eugenics Movement

“…The AOS committee chaired by Howe recommended legislation to make reporting cases mandatory, to restrict immigration as a way to prevent the importation of infectious eye diseases, and to reduce public expenditures for blind immigrants. 12 Howe delivered a paper in French on this subject before the French Ophthalmological Society, which made him an honorary vice president. (Howe had a good command of French, Spanish, German, and Italian.)…”