Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-12-27
ABOUT EYES AND THEIR AILINGS.

ABOUT EYES AND THEIR AILINGS.
Why So Many People Wear GlaSses-Color
Blindness and the Blind Spot.
As one walks along the streets of a
large city, he would be stupid indeed
who failed to notice the large and ap-
parently increasing number of people
who wear glasses for detective vision.
The number of those who DO not wear
/. glasses. but whose vision is neverthe-
less defective, is as large, if not larger;
while cross-eyed people, which glasses
as Il rule do not improve; the color
blind, whom science is powerless to
help, together with the sufferers from
iritiS and con iuntivitis and the other
kinds of tits; those afflicted with cat
aract, with granulation of the lids. and
with all the forms of sore eyes, make
an army so large that those persons
who do not have at least one game eve
are very rare indeed. - .-.s4
A common notion among uneducated
people, whose eyes are in good condi-
ton, is that young people have no use
Tor glasses, and that they wear them
''iust for style" To those who are
tnged with this medievalism, it is re-
spectfnlly suggested that ther wear n
pair of glasses for a week and see ii
they are willing to undergo the neon
vencnce for all the style i'm u millinery
store. If they try that invention of the
Evil One, the nose-pinchcrs. less than a
week will be necessary, for the torment
|. ing things will gradually slide off the
nose, If that organ is at all thick or in
al. inei TO perspirc. Nosc-gla-scs are
.Qie abomination TO all oculists, for they
Snow that with them no uniformity of
position can be attained. A glass to
he accurately fitted to an eve must
have its focal center in a line with the
center of the eye. The wearer of the
eye-glasS sticks that instrument of tor
ture on his nose in as May different
positions as he can, with the lenses at all
conceivable ANGLE. Then the bowed
glasses fret the ears and wear The bridge
of the nose raw. The man who would
wear glasses for style would wear ear
jewelry and corsets.
Everybody who lives long enough has
to use r-sighted or magnify ing glasses.
The cause, as nearly as can be stated
in popular language, is as fellows:
Directly back of the pupil of the eve,
the black spot as the illiterate conceive
il, the hole in the eye as an o.ulist con-
ceives it, is little bit of elastic jclly.
clear a crystal and shaped like len,
A circular muscle and an elasti. loa-
ment hold this in place. When the OBJ
jcct TO be looked at is at a distance. the
muscle relaNes and the ligament, which
is elastic, stretches out and ilaitens the
lens. When the obje { TO lie seen is
near at hand, the muscle contra Is, the
. igament ceases to strain upon the lens,
which. being jelly-l;kc and ca tie, tries
to get back to globular shape. As
old age comes on this lens becomes
sitter, and does not spring back into
the globular form, 50 that magnfyng
glasses have to be added to get the i'm
age OF any near OBJ Get TO us ed clearly
on the ret!na at tie ba X of the eve.
The lenses in the eyes of children less
than five years old are so elasti, that
they can distinguish objects at less than
three inches from the eve. As the
texture OF the eye becomes denser and
uenSer from age, the len lie ON IS more
and more opao ue until cataract is fully
developed. When it is ready for tn 2
operation. the eye is opened and the
lens cut ont. The patient ,an see dis
tlnctly then only the objects in facus
with the glasses he wears. Generally
two pairs arc used, one for d stan G
and one for reading and working. |
Colors are said to be more br liant To
those eyes from which catara t has
been removed. In the band of many
colored lights formed on the wall of a
dark room by beam of sunlight pas |
sing through a PRISM. there are rays be-
yond the violet which are invisible To
most people, but affect photographer
sensitive paper. 1t is sa that persons
who have had the lens of their ewes re-
moved can perceive these ultra violet |
rays.
The gradual change in the eve as
age comes on is perfectly natural and |
is no disease, but short-sightedness is a
disease of the eye. By constant strain |
inc OF the eye to see fine type or Ger
man or Greek letters, badly lighted |
school-rooms, together with insufficient |
or improper food. The shape of the eve
becomes changed: it lengtEens from
front to back, ana the RAYS of light |
which ought to come to focus in the
back of the eye, focus little way in
front of the back. A concave glass. is
used TO correct this defect bv lenrthen-
ing the focus so that it falls exactly on
the right place. Sometimes il happens
that an eye is heightened in one axis
more than another, SO that there is a
ridge, SO to speak, across the eve.
Then in that axis the patient is near
sighted and in the other axis his eve
VIII be correct. People who. have this
defect are in the habit of turning their
head on one side to see an upright OBJ
!ect PLAINLY: A telegraph pole always
looks crooked to them. 1t is only
within very few years that a remedy
Tor this defect has been discovered. 4
glass ground cylindrically-that is, as
though it We're a section of a cylinder
instead of one of sphere. as ordinary,
spherical glasses are-is lifted to the
patients eye a: the proper angle, which
s determined by looking at figures SIM
lar to these: