The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-08-04
|ARE YOUR EYES PERFECT.
"A Question That : Good Many People
Cannot Answsr In the A.
flrmativA
lives That 0st Out az order
ana lEaa1s LIN : Bur
L den


Do You vear glassesi And II you do, do
Eyou know what kind they are, how they are
made, or Just Why you wear them2 Do you
know what the matter il with your eyes
THAT you need to help them out with un-
|oomfortable s'specks," or pinching nip
(psrs2' Or do You simply 60 blindly in,
feeling. a. it were, your way to . pair Of
(glistening discs, and feel away until you
Hind those that suit?
There is collection of pertinent-per-
maps you might consider them impertinent-
Questions which the all-prevading enumer-
(ator might have-but probably did not
asked you in the course of his wandering
about town, says the New York Times. It
his not absolutely necessary that you should
|answer them now, except, perhaps, to sat
|isfy your own aroused curiosity on the SUBJ
beet, for the object Of the few observations
which follow is to enlighten you, if
(you need enliahtenment, and to strengthen
your own previously acquired knowledge if
| you don't.
The eyes, not alone your own, but those
{of the fairest girl in the world, are appar-
tently good deal like joey Bagstock's
Eostentatious liver-they're ''devilish queer
ISome OF them, Of course, are just as per-
ssct % anything human could be, but others
II them are obstreperous, apt to give
tcouble. and wholly rebellious. They cut
bns queerest pranks-as any love-sick swain
a6n tell you-get out of order, make them
Ives nuisance, and take great pains to
AAke life an appalling burden.
When they take the law into their own
hands-6guratively speaking Of course-in
this manner. it becomes the duty Of the ocu-
list and the optician to reduce them to sub
3ection and to make them feel that they are
hot the uncontrolled. glitterlng autocrats
They think themselves. And the oculist
nowadays can, with the assistance of the
eyes as Prof. Gleason does with the unruly
horses which are brought to him to subdue.
He examines and prescribes just rs the
Physician would examine q person suffering
from liver complaint or bleeding at the nose.
The druggist fills the physicians prescrip
tion the optician fills that of the oculist.
The three chief ocular defects which the
oculist 10 called upon, not exactly to rem
edy, for that is impossible. but to regulate
by the use of lenses, disguise themselves in
the comprehension Of the ordinary intel
lect with the lovely names Of myopy, hy-
permetropia and myopic and hypermetrop-
ic astigmatism. To the ordinary persons
the first two of these formidably named de-
fects are short-sig htedness and long-sight-
edness, and the third has no common
name. ~
!, The eye in it's normal state is nearly a
perfect sphere, almost an inch in diameter,
through which the rays of light enter and
come to focus exactly on the retina. But
lots Of people are born with eyeballs too
long, and the rays come to focus before
they reach the retina. Such people are
born with eyeballs too short, and such peo-
pie are lonR-sighted. Both classes have to
wear glasses in order that they may get
along in the ordinary way, and that, in the
expressive language Of the day, 10 where the
oculist comes in It is he who, if the
amines and prescribes, and it is the optic
Ian who fills the prescription.
Then come the persons with irregular
corneas-another technical term, which
means the outer surface Of the eye-who
either see horizontal lines and can't see
and can't see horizontal lines. and these
generally have hard time of it, for the
ordinary glasses don't do them any good.
Then there are other afflicted human be-
ings, one or more of the muscles of whose
eyes are weak, and they, be they never SO
The weakness of one muscle makes 1t i'm
possible for the Impressions received on the
eyes to harmonic, and 30 such people see
two objects for every one they really see,
which ID, to ray the least, unpleasant.
Now, all these things are readily remedied
by the competent oculist. 10 the short
sighted individual he prescribes q concave
lens, and that person sees with as perfect
vision a. If he had never heard of myopy.
A convex lens will make a lonR-sighted
gentleman medium and albright sighted
gentleman; 'soylindrical'' lens will make
4 so-burdened individual forget all about
ms astiRmatism, and what the person
hampered by weak muscle needs and gets
20 just prism-a prismatic lens.
ANY one Of these defects, one would inn
sRine, would be an amply generous burden
tor any one man to carry around with him
eontinually. But Nj: Pratt has had the
prescription calling for pair Of glasses
which would combine in one pair Of lenses
cures for three separate and distinct de-
fects in one pair of eyes. The unfortunate
but subsequently relieved individual for
whom these glasses were prescribed was
long-sighted, one of his optic muscles was
trophic asticmatism. When he went to an
oculist for advice he was laboring under
the impression that he had more defects
than eyes. and was sore distressed.
The examination and subsequent treat
ment resulted in giving him great joy. and,
feet sight. There were constructed for his
use lenses that were convex, "cylindricAl''
and prismatic. The prism and the "cylin-
der"-it ISN'T a real cylinder IN the real
sense Of the word. but just thick lens Of
mown BY opticians. ground into the convex
lens, and. when the operation was CON-
pluded there was handed to the sspstient''
pair Of glasses which to the casual OBJ
Derver, presented no unusual appearance.
sven though they did combine 10 many oor-
receive appliances. They were little
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