San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-10-20
DIFFERENCES IN EYEslGHT.

Due to Physical Conditions.
II is possible that slight differences may
exist in the seeing powers Of different ma
tions, due to the effect Of physical conditions;
thus the inhabitants Of mountainous districts
and Of dry, elevated table lands may have a
better sight than jewellers in low, humid and
level regions. although just the reverse may
be the case. Among European nations the
Germans are generally supposed to have
weak eyes, owing, some imagine, TO their ex-
ces,ive indulgence in tobacco, while Others
attribute the supposed decay to the form Of
type used in their books, which requires
closer looking at than ours in reading. That
they will deteriorate still further in this d.
rection. and from being specialized people
become blind one, to the JOY OF their enc
mics. Is not likely to happen, and probably
the decadence has been a great deal exagger-
ated
Animals living In darkness become near
sighted, and then nearer sighted still, and so
on Progressively until the vanishing point is
reached. In a community or nation similar
decline might begin from much reading of
German books, or perpetual smoking of pipes
with big china bowls, or from some other I'M
known cause; but the decay could not pro-
gress far, because there is nothing In man to
take the place of sight as there is in the blind
cave rats and fishes and insects And il We
could survey mankind from China to Peru
with all the scientific appliances which are
brought to bear ON the board school children
in London and on the nation generally, the
differences In the powers Of vision in the
various races, nations and tribes would prob
ably appear very insignificant The mistake
which eye specialists and writers on the eye
make is that they think too much about the
eye. When they affirm that the conditions
of our civilization are highly injurious to the
sight do they mean all the million conditions
or sets Of conditions embraced by our system,
with the infinite variety Of occupations and
modes of living which men have, from the
lighthouse keeper to the worker underground,
whose day Is the dim glimmer Of the miners
lampl
"An organ exercised beyond its won't will
grow and thus meet increase Of demand by
increase of supply." Herbert Spencer says,
but, he adds, "shere is a limit soon reached
beyond which it is impossible to 60" This
increase Of demand with use is everywhere
now on this organ and now on that, accord
ing to our work and way of life, and the eye
is in no worse case than the other organs.
There are among us many cases of heart
complaint; civilization, in such cases, has
put too great strain on that organ, and it
has reached the limit beyond which it can
not go. And so with the eye The total
number of defective among US is no doubt
very large, for we know that our system of
life retards-it cannot effectually prevent
the healthy action of natural selection. Ma
ture pulls one way and we pull the other,
compassionately trying to save the unfit
from the consequences of their unfitness>
The humane instinct oompels us, but the
cruel instinct Of the savage, who hates the
sick and the unfit as the inferior animals do,
is hess painful to contemplate than that mis-
taken or perverted compassion which seeks
to perpetuats unfitness, and In the interest of
suffering individuals inflicts a lasting injury
on the race 1t Is beautiful and sacred
thing to minister to the blind and to lead
them, but horrible thing to encourage them
to marry and transmit the miserable blind
condition to their posterity. Yet this is
very common--Longman's Magazine.