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


might well be regarded as benefactor to
his country.
great many books, newspapers and
even high class periodicals that are print
ed IN English are in such bad type that
they seriously affect the eyesight OF their
constant readers. Nobody should patron
lze a newspaper, no matter how merito-
In small, faint or confusing type, and
none but the clearest and most readable
type should be tolerated in school books.
The most suitable type for average read
ers, and especially children, is a plain
Roman type equal to Snelien's scale of D.
l., or D. 1.25. which means that it IS dis
tlnctly visible without any effort when
held at a distance of one metre or one
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-
ritating in proportion as it differs from
plain type.
AS to pages, the double column or di-
vided page is preferable to the undivided,
because it affords more rest in turning
from each line to the next, but the great
est luxury of all for the eyes is single
column Of short lines with 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 Obliqulty
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 8
eye virtually the source of illumination
for the observed eye. 1t 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. 1t is a
cruelty to any child to allow it to grow
up with squint. Every squirting child
should be taken to a skilled eye surgeon q,
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
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. l am afraid | shall have to
take to glasses.'
The doctor examines the eyes, discerns
amblyopia, and preseribes the glasses to
be used. The patient Immediately ex-
claims, eWhy, doctor, can't see as well
through these as I 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 "old sight," often called
long sight, is the result of the gradual
recession of the near point, punctunl
OroGiDaune, 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 a
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 a
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.
In1S pIOCSSS lS d p6IlcCbly ud1uIdl Ole
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 hundred times a day by their
| inability to see clearly any object close
| to their eyes.
| Old sight is 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 ad-
vantage and comfort OF young sight can,
| by scientific aid, be enjoyed well into old
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 te
| follow, it is absolutely necessary thai
| skilled advice should be taken. The sui.
ferers themselves cannot possibly tel
from their own sensations what glasse.
| they should wear. All the so called ruler
| on that subject are totally misleading
because each case has its peculiar features
and only the. trained knowledge of tn,
eye-surgeon can detect its true nature.
ARULE TO BE OBSERVED BY ALL.
Great care should be taken, even whel
| the ewes have been corrected by prope
! lenses, or when they are normal, never t
use them long for continuous near worl
without resting them by closing them O
looking into the distance. This relieve
the strain upon the saccommodative ap
paratus' of the eye and saves it from ex
/ haustion; and it is analogous to pedes
trian who has twenty or thirty miles t
walk taking a rest every four or five mile
and thus avoiding excessive fatigue in