The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1896-11-29

more often than not, the wearer looks
rim of the other. The inevitable result is
a difference in the focus of the eyes, I'M
equal development and much mischief
productive OF after suffering. Such in
equality in the eyes may even be pro-
ductiye OF serious brain trouble.
1t is rather astonishing when we come
to think about it how prevalent defective
vision is among the children of this gen.
GRAFTON. Psychologists used to tell us that
no child is born near-sighted. do not
know whether this condition OF things is
altered, but it is fact that near-sighted-
ness among small children is becoming
painfully common.
1t would seem Judging from good
many of our educational methods) as
though it is part of our sense of the fit
ness of things that this should be so. Ger
tainly we exercise considerable ingenuity
in devising contrivances to bring about
the result. My personal recollection runs
not back to the time when those versed in
the science of caring for the eyes did not
tell US that flat-topped desk is particu-
larry bad for youthful, or, for that matter,
for adult eyes. A child sitting wri ting or
reading at fat desk bends forward his
head in order to bringfhe page within the
range of vision. AS consequence the
eyeball, which is susceptible of slight
changes in shape, becomes more convex
under the influence sof gravitatlon. In
the course of a few months of this bend
ing over of the head the convexitv be-
comes permanent, and the result is near
sightedness. A very slight slant in the
surface of desk or table does away with
the necessity for this bending of the head,
but in large and popular schoolroom re-
Gently saw tiny children and half-grown
pupils sitting industriously bent forward
working at perfectly fat tables. Here, too,
as matter of course, observed the om-
nipresent spectacles.
About as mischievous an employment
as has been devised to destroy the eyes Of
children is the pricking work at which
they are busted in our kindergartens. l
was looking at collection of this work
only day or two ago-birds, bas kets,
trees, flowers and varied assortment of
figures laboriously pricked by tiny. eager
fingers in colored paper and cardboard
The designs were complicated and minute.
The infnitesimal perforations were close
together and made with 4 regularity that
would have tried older eyes and steadier
nerves to accomplish. Such work is par
ticularly bad for young, growing eyes.
my Lord knoweth that the children are
tender" runs the old Oriental saying, but
with all our boosted nineteenth century
humanities we do not seem to have come
to an understanding Of childhood's
physical limitations.
Too much-I had almost written any
microscop;cal work is had for very young
eyes. particularly if the instruments used
are, as is generally the case, adapted for
using but one eye at a time; yet the
microscopical work done in some of our
schools is of an amazing sort. Biology is
study for infants nowadays. l came
across some :papers in biology the other
day that an eight-year-old child had pre-
pared. They were full of long words, of
which my own comprehension was the
vaguest, and contained some queer little
drawings of germ-cells in the course of
propagation. AT least, this is how my
memory serves me. How much of it all
was really within the chiid's compre-