, 1889-09-19
WEAK EYES INCREASING.
AN oPTIcIAN IN A HISTORIC BUILD
ING SAYS THEY ARE.

Da
Children Are AmIoted-The Kind of
Glasses to Wear.
On the west side of Nassau street, just
south of Fulton street, is an old building,
the second floor of which was formerly
used by Aaron Bur as a law office after
his return from Europe in 1919. The
floor is now used by an oculist and OPP
tician, who is a scientist, philosopher
and merchant combined.
His reception room was formerly
Aaron Burr's consulting room, and 1t is
somewhat of a coincidence that whereas
it was formerly used for a consultation
of the mind, 1t is now devoted to the
purpose of consultations for the sight.
at Is not generally known" remarked
the oculist-optician to a News reporter,
''except to, perhaps, a few old fashioned
merchants, that this was the office of the
famous Aarol Burr; but to some of the
older members of the bar this place has
a historical interest as well as a personal
one, so far as their eyes are concerned.
81 make NJ spectacles or eye glasses
for the trade. Every pair of glasses
made here are made after a personal ex-
animation of eye, by myself, or upon
the written prescription of a recognized
oculist. 1t seems to me that defective
vision was never SO great as now.
CAUSES OF DEFECTIVE VISION.
1.-THE peculiarities of defective vision
are legion, but the prevailing affection
of the eyes is nearsightedness. This
arises from many causes, chief among
which is the increase among s~edentary
occupations. Jewellers, journalists, es-
pecially doctors, analysts, clerks, book
keepers who have to work in dark ware
houses, typewriters, especially women;
milliners, painters upon enamel, and in
fact almost every business that demands
close attention for any length of time,
has its proportion of nearsighted
workers.
mot one man in a hundred has abso-
lutely perfect vision, and that one man is
usually an illiterate person, whose bust
ness is an out door one. Yet even sea
captains, particularly in the German
navy, wear eye glasses.
"Another cause for defective vision IL
the present mode of living. We eat too
fast and choose our food at random. The
laborer and the farmer, whose frugal
fare is plain but substantial, are seldom
troubled with bad sights. Severe mental
troubles most surely affect the eyes
where there is already a predisposition to
sight failure.
During the past five years there has
been n noticeable increase of impaired
vision among school children, caused by
three things: First, too much study in
badly lighted school rooms; second, bolt
inn THAR fnn1 inctaa1 ~ nottoatf,r a.,
third, the undue strain upon the nerve
tissues, which is the result of both. A
good many children of tender years often
require glasses as strong as those worn
by persons of advanced age.
"Others are born with a malformation
Of the cornea, or front part of the eye,
the curvature of which being unequal,
the rays of light do not harmonic.
Such people see vertical lines clearly, but
the horizontal lines indistinctly, or vice
versa. The only remedy for this sort of
thing is to use cylindrical glasses.
again, others are troubled with
weakness in one of the muscles of tho
eye, 80 that the eyes do not move alike.
Hence they may have double visual i'm
pressions and see two objects instead of
one.
There is n popularity, however,
about near sighted people which does
not apply to other visual disorders. Their
sight improves when they get to be about
40 or AZ years of age, and continues to
improve for a few years afterward. This
improvement, however, is only confined
to persons who use glasses of the requi-
site strength. A too strong eye glass is
worse than nom at all, and while deal
ing with this part of the subject 1 may
say right here that the general ten dency
of nearsighted people is at firsi TO wear
glasses that are too strong for them.
Many a persons sight has beer ruined in
consequence.