St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1883-06-22
Did MeThuSeIah Wear SpecIa-
CleS!

world in which all the middle aged and
the old could see as far as was neces
Sary without spectacleS The old def
milton of spectacle is "an optical instru-
ment consisting of two lenses in a
frame for assisting or correcting the
defects of imperfect vision" And yet
we do not seem to hear of spectacles
until the twelfth or thirteenth century.
No one has as yet been able to anthem
ticatc their origin or who was the first
man or the first woman that put in an
appearance with this odd appendage
fastened over the nose. Roger Bacon,
who died in 1892, in his ''Opus Maius''
has something to say about such lens
es, and the writings of Alhazen, still
earlier, seem to give il hint of some
such an instrument. Can it be that all
along from the days of Adam down,
men of Il certain age became short
sighted? ? No other organ of the body
| has so uniformly needed to have an adj
dition constructed thereto. If this had
always been the case we could apollo
giZe for IIelmhOltz, who, in comment
| ing upon the eye of the nineteenth
century, claims that it is not well
made organ. DOnders has, in our own
era, so far amended it as to have made
Il reputation which has passed the diles
of Holland and magnitied his name by
magnifying the vision of others.
There is no other organ of the body
that seems so capable of responding to
the conditions in which it is placed.
| There is quite good evidence that races
of animals born with eyes have had
! them dim and diminish when genera
| tion after generation has been utterly
withdrawn from the light. An anatom-
| zeal preparation of Il specimen of the
! blind fish from the Mammoth Cave OF
! Kentucky is now in the museum of the
College of Surgeons, Dublin. So the
PrOteUS dRguiRuS is found without eyes,
''in grOttoes in Austria, whose dark and
| fathOmless recesses are never illumin-
ed by the suns rays" 1t is becoming
a serious question what is to become of
human eyes. The records of German
schools show a very large proportion
of German youth with some form or
another of defective vision. 1t is now
SAID that scarcely does Il man or wO-
man consult an oculist but that astig-
matism or some other form of diverted
vision is manifest. 1t is becoming not
uncommon to meet children dressed in
Spectacles. The tax upon eyes has
never been so great as in the last halt
century. TO the art of printing has
been added that of universal reading.
! To it has been added the close watch
| iulneSs over minute acts of machinery
from those of the great loom to the
most delicate work of the sewing ma
chine. Very much of it is watchfulness
over motion. The reading or the look
! ing would not be so much, but the
whirling ears or loom keep the eye in a
constant parOXysm of adjustment, an
effort at adaptation so delicate, vet SO
rapid, as scarcely to excite our atten-
ton or alarm. Nor can it be concealed
that from this or other causes human
eyes are losing some of their capaci-
ties. There is good reason to believe
that the use of spectacles is earlier and
far more universal than formerly. The
eye can be trained to certain exact OBJ
servatiOn by degrees just as the sailor
comes to see further than the lands
man or the Esquimaux to "discern the
white fox even upon the white snow
But the exercise which is given to the
eye by observation and constant agita-
ton or motion is of quite different
character. Changes which are slow are
nevertheless quite sure to take place
| The law of heredity seems to attach
much to the eye. A weakness which il
only trivial i'll the parent is transmitted
to the child and so IA gradual change is
wrought i'll this great organ. 1t is the
more serious because no other sense is
SO intimate with the mind. A dwarfed
vision Is sure to have its effect upon
the inner light. Color blindness anG
some other defects are almost new witt
the last quarter century. So divers,
are these various affections becoming
that some eyes are hard to fit will
glasses. Long vision i'll one eye, shOr
vision IN another and a disturbed foe
are not favorable to clearsightednes,
from generation to generation. w,
think 1t is high time that the hygien,
of the eye came to be more studied.
has Its natural rights, which are rude
ly assailed when it has each day to b,
severely smoked, and then subJecte,
to paper pint under the cOnstan
tremulOus motion of the rail-car read
ing, or sewing or writing in imperfec
light as are often too carelessly done
! Gas light and petroleum light ant
electric light are too brilliant for direc
rays, and are so much better if they il
lumlne the page and leave but littl
light for the person. SO much of schol
} arship, so much of industrial useful
ness, Is dependent upon perfect sight
that we have no right to impair il
We are of those who can find no evi
dence that Methuselah wore spectacle
who believe that no instrument i