Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-01
The Weekly EXpOSitOr.
FRIDAY, SEPT. /, 1898.
THE EYE.


Samson realized the worth of .he
eyes and eyesight when Milton makes
him say "Why was not man made To
see through every pore of the skin, so
that in order to destroy his eyesight
they must destroy and take away his
| life" intimating that he would rather
| be dead than blind.
1t is estimated that only ten or
twelve percent of the people have
perfect eyes, that is SO or 80 out of
every 100 persons have some derange-
ment of the eyes.
Many infants have sore eyes and
from this cause comes many blemishes
and arrangements of the eyes, with
errors of refraction from which the
child meyer fully RECEIVERS. A very
large majority of these might haye
| been obViated had the mother or
nurse washed the little ones eyes with
weak solution of Biborate of Soda
or BOracic acid. In this as in many
other cases little care and attention
may save Il life of suffering and misery.
As n general rule newly born children
are farsighted and when only slight,
is no material defect to the eyes, but
when there is much departure In this
way from the normal condition it pro-
duces very appreciable effect on the
whole nervous system. 1t has often
been remarked that many people with
Il torpid liver and Il stomach that does
not digest its food we'll, think that
they will not live long, they feel sad
and melancholy and ut times they even
think that they haye religious feelings
when it is all Il delusion for they are
neither going to fill an early grave
nor have they any particular inclina-
ton to ue religious. SO il is with many
far sighted persons, they imagine
that because they can see distant
objects we'll that their eye sight is good,
but when put to the test at near work
the eyes are found to be suffering from
hypermetropia (far sight or from
astigmatsm Imperfect curve of cornea
or lens). In such cases the change
comes on SO gradual that the person
does not notice it and indeed the first
intimation that they have that there
is anything wrong with the eyes is
when they come TO the surgeon COM
planning about being nervous, having
headache. dizziness and distress in the
stomach and host of other ailments
that will not be supposed by the
patient to be caused by the eye strain
at all and they are generally surprised
when told by the surgeon that
there in the eyes is the cause of all the
trouble. The eye being so intimately
and closely connected with the brain
it is easily and quickly affected by any
undue tension of the muscles and
soon shows itself by headaches, pain
i'll and about the eyes, stys and redness
on or about the eyelids. These troubles
can be easily corrected by using prop
erly fitted glasses.
The muscles that fit or accommodate
the eye to near or far objects are in
voluntary and may suffer from excess
i've strain or undue tension and we
may not be aware of it, and indeed
the first symptoms that we can know
will be headache, pain in or about the
eyes, with redneSs of the eyelids.
Strain upon these muscles of the eye
causes a demand for more than their
legitimate amount of nerve force.
This means drain of nerve supply
from other centers of musclar action
and necessary impairment and de-
rangement of the whole muscular and
nervous system. The stomach is n
nerve center and if the system robs it
of nerve supply and muscular action
then some arrangement of this organ
is sure to follow.
were examined it would be found
that nearly 20 percent of them have
some difficulty with the eyes that
require to be corrected with glasses.
Some authors claim that 30 percent
of school children haye enough error
of refraction to effect their health and
or | hn
school children of our land have quite
such a large percentage as that, but
possibly the children iN Germany
may come up to that average on
account of their being compelled to
study so closely and more particularly
on account of the peculiar shape of the
letters IN their text books. Many a
child has been set down as stupid or
obstinate at school, and the little
ones life has been made miserable by
constant scolding and abuse and being
found fault with when the cause of all
the trouble was in the eyes, as the
result of the excessive tension of the
ciliary muscle to enable the child to
see, and from this was produced that
hyperaemic and congesteG condition
of the brain that showed itself by head
aches, pain in the eyes, stupidness,
sleeplessness or disturbed sleep at
night and loss of appetite. 1t is
noteworthy fact that supraorbtal and
temporal pain are characteristic symp-
tons of eye strain. Every teacher and
parent should notice the children who
complain about having headaches
after they have been in school for u
length of time, if they are free from it
when out of school for few days and
if they find such to be the case, they
need not hesitate to decide at once
that properly fitted glasses will relieve
the trouble.
The change in the eyes that necess-
itates the wearing of glasses and that
by many is taken to indicate old age,
begins about ten years of age
and keeps gradually increasing and
steadily curtailing the accommodation
of the eye. This change in the eye is
physiological and it can neither be
obviated or retarded, but may be
accelerated 10y delaying the use of
glasses, for by the use of a properly
I fitted lens the eye can do its work with
greater ease and must of necessity
retain its strength and usefulness