The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1892-04-21
A NEW DISEASE.
Tt Is Known as "Typewriters
insanity"
And Affects Those Who Manipulate the
Typewriter-W What u Ieirned Doe-
tor siys 10 ssrding the
Afeftinn


Typewrter- What u learned Doe-
tor s,ys Iie sRr,llnG the
Ai!eetinn
81 Pretty typewriters in danger of losing
t'eh reason! x new mental disease
~ been noticed by many physicians in
tn" past few years, and it has increased
witt the use of typewriters in all de-
p;lrtncnts of commercial and profess
s;ionsl work.
1t usually begins with slight but
4 persistent headache. Then gradually
tae memory fails, so that persons az
fectod BECOME mcab~ent-minded to such
sl ..sre>s- that they arc scarcely to be
sruatad alone. Dyspepsia, with all its
horrors, follows, and finally the patient
Becomes unified for all mental exer-
tion.
This is description of typewriters'
4 ii,sanity given to a reporter of the New
oril Morning Journal by DR.. Charles
Higgins, of brooklyn, who hac :..-~
u Several such cases under his charge.
The disease is as real as writer's
eramp," the doctor said, although
when its cause was first suggested to be
the use of the typewriter it was
laughed at as absurd. People laughed
at writer's cramp in the same way
Evenly Years ago"
How can the use of typewriter
cause dyspepsia?" asked the reporter.
IS We'll, 10 explain that" said the doc
Tor, Il should have to go over all that
I'VE know OF that marvellous telegraph
plant which every human being carries
about with him, known as the nervous
4 system. Specialists who have studied
nerve diseases discovered years ago that
there were what we now know as re-
flcx actions. That is, that condition
which affects one portion of the body
produced similar or opposite effect ON
another portion, just as a telephone
q wire is made useless by the induced
current from an electric light wire.
Perhaps the most familiar example of
this is the fact that piece of grit or
dirt in an eye will cause the other to
4 smart and become inflamed through
3 sympathy."
Here the doctor produced diagrams
& of the keyboards of half dozen of the
prominent makes of typewrlters.
"Now, as you see," he went on,
"thesc keyboards consist Of round or
hcxagonal keys, about half an inch in
diameter. They are white with black
letters in the center, and they stand
out against the black background.
Many of these keybocrtls are eighteen
inches long by foot deep, and most of
them are larger than the page of an
ordinary book. Now will make little
diagram to show you Where the great
STRAIN on the nervous system comes
FROM
Here the doctor drew a rough sketch
of the human eye in section and of the
keyboard of a popular typewriter.
You can easily see that in the eff
fort to perceive all the keys at once
when working rapidly, the eye endeav
ors to adjust itself to focus that will
cover the entire key board. But this is
impossible, SO the mirror at the back of
the eye, called the retina, is constantly
changing the lenses i'll front of the eye
so that it can get the objects distinctly
impressed upon it.
"In the diagram l have only shown
four different focuses" continued the
doctor, "but when you multiply them
by the number of keys on the four rows
and count that the spaces between the
keys are about an inch lower than the
tops Of the keys themselves, you can
imagine the vast number of focuses that
reach the eye and the amount of work
the lenses OF that delicate organ must
do to keep pace with them.
Prof. Hayes, the expert of Phila-
delphia,," DR.. Higgins went on, has
estimated that in five hours work on
typewriter an ordinary expert operator
will have to change the focus of the
lenses of the eye at least forty-seven
million times!
Now, the human eye was never in
tended to do this" asserted the doctor
land the strain on the little muscles
which move these lenses is enor
nous. It soon has reflex action on
the nerves, and this finally irritatcs the
brain to such degree that it produces
typewriters' insanity"
us there no cure for this trouble,
doctor?" asked the reporter.
''Oh. yes!" he rejoined. "Rest will ef-
feet q perfect cure, and sometimes q
pair OF eyeglasses, suited to the eyes
that are naturally perfect, afford u
great relief"
Gould You suggest any improvement
in typewriters to lessen the strain on
the eyes?"
II think could" concluded DR.. Hig-
gins. "a typewriter with keyboard
like piano or something approaching
1t would be wonderful thing for this
trouble. Pianists become expert on q
straight lat keyboard, and can see no
reason Whv tvpewriters should not"