The Arizona champion., 1890-11-08
NEAR SIGHTED PEOPLE. The Causes of the Destruction
 of Sight.
HOW THE VISION GAN BE PRE- SERVED
A Broadway 0ptician Discourses on
 the Subject.

"ln no other GUY ln the world can pc found so many people afflicted with my opia or near sightedness as right here in New York, " said Broadway optician a few days since ''More than half the population of our big town are so af- hicted, and the number of persons who wear spectacles or eyeglasses is astonish- ingly large, as is evinced by an examina- ton of the faces of the crowds which surge along Broadway. The number of sufferers from myopia is, am sorry to say, annually increasing, and not few of these are from our schools and col leges."
 ''To what do you attribute the preva- lence of this partial blindness? queried the writer.
 Clear sightedness arises from num- Der of causes, chief among which are reading in the dusk of the evening, or fatiguing the eyes in trying to read by aid of bad artificial illumination; read ing while in a lying position, or with the head thrust too far forward; the perusing of blurred or slovenly printed books, or matter printed in a very small type. All these and many other things conduce to gradual decrease in the power of vision, and if too greatly persisted in will finally end in the total destruction of the sight.
 1.-The principal cause of the prevalence of short sightedness (among our business men at least, is the pernicious habit so largely indulged in of reading newspa- pers while riding in the surface cars or omnibuses. The jolting or swaying mo- tion of the car or bus causes an unsteadi- ness of hand, which makes the type ap- pear blurred and uncertain. The steadier, easy motion of the cars on the elevated roads has done much toward the preser- vation of the eyesight of those who find that they must read while en route and who patronize the aerial mode of transit"
 "When does one become conscious of failing visual power2" was asked.
 ''One first begins to discover that he is losing his keenness of vision when the signs along the streets and distant ob- jects are not easily discernible without conscious effort, accompanied by pain ful straining and extension of the pupil. When one is convinced that his eyesight is failing him he should not delay mo- ment before consulting an oculist."
 els not near sightedness sometimes hereditary2'
 T believe hereditary influence to be of great effect in causing short sight. have known large families, whose mem- bers, from the youngest to the oldest, were afflicted with weak eyes or too short range of vision. The sight can be preserved and prevented from growing poorer only by the use of proper glasses at the proper time. A dangerous mis- take, too often made, is that of wearing glasses which are either too weak or, what is worse, too strong for the require ment of the eye"
 Continuing the optician remarked that: "Presbyopia or so called far sighted ness supervenes earlier with those who are constantly at work than with other persons, and as soon as 1t does convex glasses should be at once resorted to, without which the muscle of accommO- dation would be fatigued to no purpose. At first they should be used for working in the evening, after the fatigue of the day, but a long sighted person should only use spectacles for looking at near objects, not at far ones"
 Speaking of spectacles and eyeglasses, the optician further remarked that but few lenses were made in the United States, and those only of the poorest quality. Said he: 1.-The best lenses are imported in a rough state from France, and cut and polished after arrival in this country. Glasses are numbered from five to fifty; those below No. are worn only by persons undergoing treatment for cataract or other ocular diseases. As tigmatism is one of these. Astigmatism is an abnormal development of sight power in one of the eyes, with a cores bonding weakness of vision in the other. It is often mistaken for myopia, and so treated by ignorant men who pose as ophthalmologists, or, more properly speaking not oculists at all.
 ''In conclusion will only say that a man can part with leg, arm or other member of his body and eventually be- come accustomed to his loss, and may, if he be of a philosophical turn of mind, manage to suck much nectar from lfe's flower, but the loss of sight units man alike for pleasure and for duty, and rel moves forever the one thing needful to the most complete and fullest enjoyment of his existence. If there is one thing I more than another which I would strive to impress on the minds of young people it is the advice, Take care of your eyes"