The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1893-06-25

metre and quarter from the eyes.
Too large type is almost as trying as too
small, and faced, rustic, and every other
kind of ornamental type is firing and ir-
r1tatlng in proportion as 1t differs from
plain type.
AS to pages, the double column or di-
yided page is preferable to the undivided,
because it affords more rest in turning
IRON each line TO the next, but the great
est luxury of all for the eyes is single
column of short lines with a broad mar
gin.
THE CURE OF SQUIRTING.
Squirting exists when the visual axes
are not both directed to the same object.
1t is caused by hyperopia or imperfect
refraction OF the eyes, and it may be cor
rected by the use of proper glasses and an
operation on the contracted muscle.
This operation, which is extremely
simple, has been employed for the last
hundred years at least, but in former
times it was employed ignorantly and
mechanically and generally failed In its
object.
1t was believed that if the muscle, the
contraction of which held the eye to one
side, were loosened, the eye would neces-
sarily go straight, and it did so for time.
But as the original cause of its obliquity
was not affected by the cutting of the
muscle, it soon went crooked again.
1t is only within the last twenty years
that squirting has been treated scientific
cally; that is to say, since the ophthal-
moscope was discovered by Won Helmholz
of Gottingen, now professor of ophthal-
mology in the university of Berlin.
This marvellous instrument enables US
to see the parts of the eye behind the
crystalline lens by making the Observer
eye virtually the source of illumination
for the observed eye. It makes it possible
to correct the errors of vision, which are
the actual cause OF squirting, by actual
knowledge of the interior of the eyes.
This accounts for the vast diminution
of the number of cases of squirting
within the present generation. It Is
cruelty to any child to allow it to grow
up with a squint. Every squirting child
should be taken to skilled eye surgeon,
and in great many cases the squint will
be cured. Even grown-up persons with
a squint have a fair chance OF being re-
lieved if they submit themselves to
proper treatment.
DULL SIGHT.
Amblyopia, meaning dulness of sight,
is the term applied to defective acuteness
of sight short OF actual blindness, the
cause and nature of which differ widely
in different cases.
In some it is quite durable by the use of
proper glasses, but where it arises from
defective retinal images the correction of
the optical error by glasses often fails for
time to give full acuteness OF sight.
These are the cases where people go to
the doctor and say: ''There is some
thing the matter with my eyes. Every
thing looks dull and queer. / can't
make it out. ! am afraid shall have to
take to glasses.'
The doctor examines the eyes, discerns
] LII J. L. g.
be used. The patient Immediately ex-
claims, "Why, doctor, can It see as well
through these as l could before.''
The doctor, nevertheless, is quite right,
and if the patient can be prevailed on to
persevere in the use of glasses the eyes
become educated in the appreciation of
clear images, and the sight gradually i'm
proves.
There is a much better chance of this
result with children or young persons
than when the dull sight is discovered
late in life.
OLD SIGHT.
Presbyopia, or sold sight, often called
long sight, is the result of the gradual
recession of the near point, punctuns
proIiDln2n, which begins at about the
age of ten and goes on as life advances,
steadily curtailing the range or ampli-
tude of accommodation. That is to say
child of ten, with normal eyes, can hold
any object close and see each detail
plainly, but every year afterward he has
to hold it further from the eyes in order
to see it equally plainly.
AT about the age Of forty, still assum-
ing the eyes to be normal, the recession
of the near point will have reached
stage where he cannot see the object
plainly at less distance than twenty
two centimetres; and, as soon as the near
point recedes farther than that, old sight
is deemed to have begun.
This process is a perfectly natural one
and is so uniform that, were there no dis
turbing circumstances, the glasses re-
CURED to bring the near-point to the
proper distance might almost be deter
mined merely from the patients age.
Most people dread to acknowledge to
themselves, and much more to their doc
tor, that their sight is failing, and they
imagine they can conceal the fact by re-
fusing to use glasses, whereas they be-
tray it a hundred times a day by their
inability to see clearly any object close
to their eyes.
Old sight is a physiological change
which can neither be averted nor re-
tarded, but much distress can be spared
by the use of the proper correcting lens
at the proper period, and much of the adj
vantage and comfort OF young sight can,
| age.
| In all other cases where the use of the
proper correcting lens at the proper time
| Is the only remedy for the defect, and the
only safeguard against worst defects to
follow, it is absolutely necessary that
skilled advice should be taken. The sui
ferers themselves cannot possibly tell
from their own sensations what glasses
| they should wear. All the so called rules
on that subject are totally misleading,
because each case has it's peculiar features
and only the trained knowledge of the
eye-surgeon can detect its true nature.
A RULE TO BE OBSERVED BY ALL.
| Great care should be taken, even when
the eyes have been corrected by proper
| lenses, or when they are normal, never to
without resting them by closing them or
| looking into the distance. This relieves
the strain upon the 'accommodatiye APP
paratus'' of the eye and saves it from ex-
haustion; and it is analogous to pedes-
trian who has twenty or thirty miles to
walk taking q rest every four or five miles
and thus avoiding excessive fatigue in
stead OF walking the whole distance at a
stretch. Another cardinal point to be re-
membered is to use the eyes only under
the most favorable conditions OF light
that can be obtained. Never face the
light; if you must, let the eyes be shaded
The light should preferably fall laterally
or over the left shoulder, since the right
hand is always used and is apt to throw
shadows. When the eyes are tired OIL
sore from unavoidable over exertion, il
is good thing 70 bath them with hot OF
cold water.
J, All should understand that ophthalmol
ogy is the best rounded study in sciencG
on account of the mathematical accuracy
with which the defects OF the eye can b.
measured. The eye is an optical instru