The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-09-03
DEFECTIVE SIGHT.
Great Number of Eye
Glasses Worn in
Worcester.
and IT is NO FANCY FAD.
Some Curious Cases Cited
by Local Occu-
lists.
AND IT is NO FANCY FAD.

There was time when Boston was as
closely connected with eyeglasses as
with baked beans.
Eyeglasses were supposed to be a SYM
Dol of intelIectuality though whether
the glasses We're thought to furnish the
intellect, or whether it was pre-sup-
posed that glasses were worn as a re-
suit of the profound study necessary to
arrive at the height of erudition, it is
hard to stay.
But people sometimes see eyeglasses
outside of Boston. In Worcester, for
example, you occasionally run across
pine nez," or a pair of gold trimmed
steel trimmed, or no-rimmed spectacles
Just how many people in Worceste,
wear glasses it would be difficult to es-
innate. A great many who need them
don't wear them, according to a prom
inent occulist in the city, and some who
wear them would be as well off without.
And according to the same occulist, the
wearing of glasses is not fad. Folks
say sometimes that people didn't use
to wear glasses SO much, and wonder il
the human sight is falling People
DIDN'T use to ride bicycles but it is nc
sign that the human walking powers
are growing less for that reason. People
| have learned something, that is all
1hey nave learned that glasses, as aids
to vision, or as representatives. of danger
Gus defects in sight, are necessaries
rather than luxurtes.
AS was said before, it would be hard
TO approximate the number of people
wearing glasses in Worcester but it is
not so difficult to get an idea OF the
number who have defective vision, for
it must be accepted that Worcester
people are average people, and what fits
in places where extensive examinations
have been made and statistics compiled
must hold good here. Occulists agree
that most defective vision is caused by
congenital deformities; that is, people
are born with defective eyes; eyes
which are deformed rather than DIS
| eased. Examinations have proven thai
81 per cent of the people of the United
| States are born with defective vision,
| generally with what is known as Ear
| Sightedness. Their occupations as they
| grow older have much to do with the
increase of the defects. Those who use
| their eyes continually for close, fine
work, such as students mechanics,
| bookReepers, artists, musicians. are
more liable to feel the effects of disor-
dered vision than those who work at
large things. A farmer doesn't have to
have glasses to see a COW, usually. In
| Cincinnati AZ per cent of the pupils
tested in the art school were found to
have some radical defect of vision, and
in music the per cent was found to be
56. Out of 1000 pupils tested there, 800
were found to be near-sighted.
t7 As people grow old, the sight becomes
more and more affected, and after the
age of 40 occulists say that glasses will
prove a benefit even to the perfectly
normal eye, though they are not absol-
utely necessary in all cases. The sex
of the person seems to have but little
to do withthe visual condition, though
it appears that more women than men
seek the occulist's aid. 1t may be be-
cause men are wont to let little defects
go until they are warned by failing
sight, and then they go to an optician
and have themselves fitted with glasses.
There are, however, a number of dis
eases which people usually think come
from the nerves directly, and yet which
are the direct results of defective Wis
ion. Sick headache, St. Vitus dance,
stammering and kindred troubles have
been cured by the use of glasses.
Besides the straining of the eyes by
occupations which take close looking,
defects in vision are augmented by
other things. One eye may be weaker
than the other the good eye being used
most, the weaker one falls into disuse
and finally becomes paralyzed, just as
any other muscle, if it is not used, and
then all the strain coming on one eye,
would cause it to become weak in
turn.
The glasses hawked upon the streets
and sold for small sum, are often
causes of bad sight. These glasses are
carelessly made, of poor glass; and
are often not matched. Sometimes the
lenses are not even conferred; that is,
the centre of one of the lenses may be
higher than the centre of the other.
The eyes will try to correct this, and
the result is a squint or loss of the
focusing power.
From the fact that defective vision
is almost without exception congenttal,
1t would be incorrect to say that any
particular age was more susceptible tol
defective sight than another. AS one
increases in years, however, defects
often become more pronounced, and
glasses are more often found on adults
than on children.
There is an art in fitting glasses that
takes years to acquire. 1t is as hard
to get spectacles or eyeglasses to mt
some people as it Is to get hat that
suits some faces. The size of the
glasses, says a well-known optician of
Worcester, should be regulated by the
shape of the face and the size of the
eyes. To see children with great moon
like glasses on is ridiculous he thinks
The size of the lens has nothing to do
with its shape.
Some odd cases come to the occulistI
sometimes An occulist in Worcester
told a Spy man the other day of a case
he had in which the man was blind I'M
one eve He had become accustomed
to looking at things with his one eye,
and had learned to regulate his walk
by the way he saw things. The oc-
culist was able to restore sight to the
other eye, and them the man began toI
have trouble. He had learned that
when he saw fence directly in front
of him, it was really slightly to one
side, so when he began to use both
eyes, he invariably ran into the fence
until he was able to teach himself the
difference.
One of the most peculiar defects inl
sight, which really is a disease of the
mind, is what is known as mirror writ
ing, in which the patient sees every
thing backwards. as though in a mir
ror. Another form of this disorder is
inverted vision, where the patient sees
objects upside down and backwards
as on the ground glass Of a camera.
one Of the StrangeSt cases one OF the
Worcester occulists ever came across
was a girl from a neighboring town.
Her eyes seemed to be all right, but
she insisted that white was black and
vice versa. She saw the print on a
page as white and the paper as black
The occulist thinks she was trying to
be smart, and really had nothing the
matter with her. 1t doesn't make much
difference, anyway, does 1t, whether
ar xU1
Practically uninjured-Spiteful Thing:
They say Clarence has the golf shout
der. I'm so sorry. dear!" Sweet Young