The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-10-31
SHOOTING sPEcTAcLEs AND LENSES.

| SHOOTING SPECTACLES AND LENSES.
facial distortion, but the other ninety-nine
will look as if stroke of paralysis had
drawn their features out of shape in an
endeavor to make the thing stay put
In fact, with certain class, it is only an
idle display-a fashion rather than neces-
sity, Defective vision, however," con-
tinued the doctor more seriously, has
greatly increased of late years, particu-
larly in our large cities, where are to be
found so many persons engaged in seden-
tary cupations-students, bookkeepers,
clerks and others, who are subjected to the
/ influence of bad light and air. This is one
reason why you see SO many people wear
/ ing glasses.
ut is only within the last half century
that we have made the delicate organism
OF the eye thorough scientific study, but
so much has been learned in that time that
the specialist is now enabled to treat intel
hgently and with general success almost
every disease with which it is afflicted. In
ventiOns of the scientists now permit us to
illuminate the inside of the eyeball and see
the beautiful structure of its deep parts
the optical nerve itself-as clearly as you
see the print on your newspaper, and we
are no longer in the dark while diagnosing
an optical arrangement. In plain, COM
mon sense like way let me tell you some
thing about it:
THE eye is like Photographic camera.
In 1t is certain membrane known as the
retina, on which is received the impression
Of external objects exactly like the sensi
tive plate Of the camera From this sensi-
tive plate the impression is transmitted by
the nervous apparatus to the brain. 1t
also has focusing quality whereby rays
from an object are converged, making a
distinct picture upon the retina. The lens
produces the same effect in the camera In
the photographers instrument this lens Is
capable of being moved backward and for
ward so that objects at different distances
may be brought to focus, but in the case
Of the eye this is accomplished not by NOV
ing the lens but by increasing or diminish
ing its power; that is. by making it more
or less convex
Rays coming from distant object for
practical purposes, say over twenty feet,
enter the eye parallel, and are exactly TO
cused Within that range they do not en-
ter parallel, and therefore require change
in the focusing apparatus in order to pro
duce a clear picture, the power of the lens
increasing as we approach the eye. AS we
grow older this focusing apparatus loses a
certain quality, or what is technically
known as the power of accommodation
Our near point recedes from us, and we
cannot see things distinctly. This is due
to a loss of elasticity in the lens; in other
words, it becomes fattened. 1t is now that
the deficiency must be supplied by aconvex
lens outside. through spectacles. This is
the condition in ali old people, and it keeps
on increasing, making it necessary to make
a corresponding increase in the power Of
the glasses every few years
Then of course spectacles are required
for abnormal conditions Of the focusing
apparatus Of the eye. For instance, per
son may be what is termed long sighted,
or as some people describe it weak sighted,