The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1890-03-07
CARE FOR YOUR EYES.
People Often Hurt Themselves With
Unsuitable Glasses.

Have you any idea, . said a physi-
clan the other day to a Pittsburg
Chronicle Telegraph reporter, ''of the
number of people who are wearing
eyeglasses and spectacles that are
wearing them for complaints or de-
fections entirely foreign to that for
which the glasses are intended?
There are thousands of people in
this country who are every day ruin
ing their eyesight, simply because the
glasses they wear are not suited to
them. If, when a man, or
child, when they find that there is
anything wrong with their eyes,
would simply go to a thoroughly com
petent opthalmologist, have their eyes
carefully examined and the proper
glasses prescribed, there would be far
less semi-blindness today than there
is. But it is of no use to argue the
matter: the people won't do it, and
they must be the sufferers"
That the physician was entirely cor
rect there cannot be the slightest
doubt. There are any number of
people in Pittsburg whose cases fit
this description precisely. You see a
young man or woman wearing spec
tacles, and if you are sufficiently well
acquainted to inquire the cause nine
out of ten will tell you that they have
weak eyes, are NEAR sighted, . far
sighted or they don't see well, y
when in reality the only proper reason
is the latter, they don't see well.
With a great number of people who
are today living behind q pair of spec
tacles their trouble at first vas
trivial and they sought relief in pur-
chasing a pair of glasses from store
keepers who made the sale of glasses
purely an incident in their trade.
Throughout the country there are
thousands of druggists, jewelers. and
drygoods men who have eyeglasses
for sale. There is not a corner notion
stand in the city oil New York where
glasses are not kept for sale, and in
deed they are on sale in a shoestore
on Palatox street in Pensacola. Now,
if people will purchase such an inn
portant item of their existence at %
drygoods or shoe store they must be
content to suffer, for the fault is en-
tirely theirs.
What does it matter to the store
keeper whether ones eyes are per-
manently injured OF not? He don't
iniure them. You go into his store,
ask to e a pair of glasses, and choose
those which you think are suited to
you and that is the end of it. He has
no responsibility in the matter what
ever, and you are the sufferer.
The greatest cause of del ective Wis
ion is astigiaatism yet There are few
people who know that they are astig-
matte. they think of everything else
but this.
over sixty per cent. of people wear
ing glasses said Optician Kornblum
this morning, 'sare a~stigmatic, and
yet not more than fifteen per cent. of
them are wearing ~astigmatic glasses.
Astigmatisin is in the majority of
cases hereditary; it is a natural defect
iii the c~urvatures of the pupils OF the
eye. The light does not strike the
eye perfectly, or, what is a better def
milton, the eye is not squarely respon-
siye to the light. In cases of astig-
matism the eyes are rarely alike, there
is always some slight difference, and
the glasses should be made to meet
and correct the defects in both.
s'Astigmatics cannot see rightly
without glasses by looking squarely
at an object. You can always tell an
astigmatic-to him things do not look
right, letters run together, look wavy
and blurred. Sometimes he will shut
one eye to look at an object or hold
his head to one side, or hold the OBJ
ject close to him and look at it side
wise. and yet but about fifteen per
cent. of people so afflicted know what
is the matter with them or have
glasses to suit them"
A gentleman who has worn glasses
astigmatism for nearly sixteen years
tells Of how he got his first pair OF
glasses at an Irresponsible concern,
and finding that his eyes were getting
worse instead of better, he went to an
opthalmologist and vas surprised to
learn that he had been wearing far
sighted glasses to correct a compound
-astignatism.
Glasses are by young people
more generally in the North and East,
They are but rarely seen in the far
West. and are really a curiosity in the
South.
just why a~stigmatisin is SO pre-
valent in the North and East is q
| question'that is hard to answer, but
it is true nevertheless, and it is also
true that the vast majority of people
are wearing glasses totally unsuited
to them.
The time will come soon, however,
when q law will have TO be passed
making it obligatory on the vender
of eyeglasses to pass an examination
gust as we'll as the druggist and
physician.
Ladies' Purses.
The fashionable lady's purse now
adays means more than a mere re-
ceptaele for bills and loose change. 1t