The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-01-22
NEAR-SI GHTEONEsS.
4 Product of Modern Habits and Pra
tees.


4 Product of Modern Habits and Prac-
tees.
NJ. ssTcey, who hiss vrittsn an instructive
work upon the SUBJECT, maintains that he
vas born shOrtsighted IN spite OF sill thar
medical authorities assert TO the con trary,
He is willing to remain an exception 10 the
rule Of scientific lore, but he is rssolu.e in
his statement. The fact Of his being myopic
was revealed 70 him when child.
zone cay" he relates, II put on my
fathers spectacles for fun. The sensation /
experienced is still VIVID IN nv memory
though fifty years have passed since it was
produced. / was in the garden at the time.
With CRY of joy end establishment l dis
covered that the roof OF foliage above my
head, which hSd always appeared to me an
Indistinct mass OF somber color, divided itself
INTO leaves and branches, through which por-
tons OF the blue sky YVES plainly visible. was
wild with Joy, and demanded necessarily
that my parents should give me the specta-
cleS 10 wear. And all nv life
hsvssthus gone from surprise to surprise.
Would you believe thst at sixteen years OF
age, reading about the ways and habits of
birds, l was terribly uneasy to know how
any one could have found out all these de-
tails? For / said 10 myself, one never
sees the birde; We only know that they exist
by hearing them 1, for my part, had never
seen anything mere than q black comma
We
Turning to the question as to how one be-
comes near-sighted, N. Sarcey observes, first,
that
antiquity does not seem to have known
what this defect was. You know" he says.
"ot what enormous dimensions the Greek
and Roman theateTs and ciTcuses were.
Thirty thousand spectators would sit at ease
IN them. None of them ever had or felt the
want of opera glasses. The Emperor Nero's
wss rare case OF short-sightedness among
the men OF antiquity. 1 imagine that it was
with the ancleDts as 1t was with our sailors
of the present day. Accustomed, from father
to son, 10 lock at objects in the distance,
never reading and letting sleep repose their
eyes as coon as the sun sets, they acquired
that sort of piercing sight that Fenimore
Cooper likes to end0w his savage Indians
with
In the present day, NJ. Sarcey continues,
men wear their eyesight out in the daytime
by excessive reading and writing, and in the
nighttime by gaslight and overheRted at
mosphere. The proportion Of short-sighted
people, according 70 that celebrated &C.
oulist, N. Perrin, whom NJ. Sarcey cites,
has increased ia the large Government
schools from 30 TO so per cent. IN fifteen
years. And in this calculation only con-
irmed short-sighted people are included;
otherwise the proportion would be consider
ably greater, we are told. "Out OF 100
pupils Of the Polytechnic School," another
optician says, ''st least ninety are obliged to
wear spectacles" And in Germany, it 'ap-
pears matters are still worse, because the
Germans read more than we do, and their
Gothic type is far more fatiguing for the eyes
than are Roman characters. M. Sarcey warns
his re aders against believing in two popular
errors With respect to short sight. The first,
that such sight remains stronger than the
normal sight as one advances in years and
ihe second, that II is wrong TO wear glasses
for this defect. Both of these assertions he
declares to be absolutely false.