The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-05-11
Near-SightedneSS.

only within ten or fifteen wears that at
tempts have been made to collect statis-
tics in regard to its frequency, but the
presumption is that if this disease had
been as prevalent thirty or forty years
ago as it is now it would not have been
overlooked, for there have been very
observing men in this department of
medicine for many years, and their at
tention would have been called to it by
private patients. The question as to
its increase cannot be directly answered
from its history and statistics as it may
be ten or fifteen years hence, but it has
to some extent been answered in the
affirmative in considering its causes and
their operation on the eyes of children.
From the statistics which have been
carefully collected in this country and
in Europe. we find that it exists in
school children under six in a very
small degree, viz: from to per cent.
In older students who have passed
through the primary and grammar
schools there is a gradual increase,
which is more rapid from eight to six
teen than at any other period. At the
age of twenty we find the per cent. in
creases from 80 to 60 per cent, and in
one university GO per cent. are near
sighted. The great cause of this in
crease is, without doubt, long-continued
and close application to study. The
most important facts these statistics
show are that in healthy eyes this dis
ease is produced by study under I'M
favorable circumstances, and that it is
progressive. With these facts estab-
lished, and considering that our facili-
ties for education are increasing with
our increasing wealth, and that chill
dren are often stimulated by emulation
and other means to study beyond their
physical strength, so that our system of
education is becoming more and more
like the compulsory system of Germany,
and we believe there can be no doubt
that this disease is increasing with our
! civilization.
Another factor that tends to increase
it is the amount of study and reading
done at home. In reading fiction
people are more apt to hurt the
eyes than in other reading or study, for
the simple reason that one will read
longer on an interesting subject and
not notice fatigue. The literature of
this kind, written expressly for chill
dren, in the form of Sunday-school
books and periodicals, has been accu-
mulating very rapidly within the last
generation, and it still increases. 1t
may be thought in regard to the devel-
opment and increase of myopia in
the schools, that in Hartford at least
our children are not suffering In the
examination of the highest room of one
of our large schools here of 126 schol-
ars, whose average age was thirteen,
there were found thirty-four myopic
scholars, or ~ per cent. In the lower
intermediate room examined in the
same school. there were forty-nine pu-
pills, average age nine and one half
years; youngest seven years, Oldest
twelve years; number near-sighted,
seven, being about IA per cent. There
were examined in the school in all 675
pupils, of whom Is per cent. were near
sighted.
The question how can myopia be pre-
vented is the most important one in
connection with this whole subject. If
this transparent organ suffers to this ex-
tent, an organ of whose condition we
have accurate tests, it is not probable
that it suffers alone. 1t may be an in
dex of other changes going on in other
organs, as in the nervous system, which
often gives out in children by too much
brain. work. When the nervous system
breaks down the first thing required is
rest and change. In the abnormal
changes OF the eye the same treatment
is necessary. Those who are suscepti-
BILE to these changes should be partially
or entirely relieved from study until
they get beyond the time when they are
liable to develop the disease. Inasmuch,
however, as we do not always know in
what healthy eyes it may be developed,
and as 20 per cent. of the subjects
themselves are Ignorant of its approach,
how eminently proper would it be to
retar the pressure on children bet,Oeen the
ages Of nine and Sirteen, allowing them
to spend half the time in school that
they now do. Our high schools and
colleges would have older students, it
is true, and young people would be
more mature at graduation. They
might have some other knowledge when
they graduate besides book knowledge,
but would more practical additions to
education be other than an advantage,
even without considering the more per-
feet physical condition, on which mental
vigor often depends? This proposed
reduction of study at a time when body
is developing rapidly is at variance
with our idea of modern training and
culture, and such changes are likely to
be instituted and adopted but slowly by
school authorities, but the investigation
and discussion of such subjects as this
may do much to inaugurate and bring
about such desirable result.
AS general rule, school-rooms re-
quire more light than dwellings, be-
cause pupils need to see equally well in
all parts of the room and cannot APP
proach window as they may do at
home if the light is insufficient. We
have accurate scientific tests of what
normal eye can see, and it has been de-
termined that the ratio between light
required and floor measure is definite,
so that for every four square feet of
floor there should be one square foot of
glass. The ordinary ratio in schools is
about one to ten. In many school
rooms the light comes from behind the
pupils, so that they sit in their own
light, or comes from the front and daz-
oil Tho an1n. tIa =