The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-17
TYPEWRITER AND THE EYE.
1T AIDS THE VISION AND THE OC-
ULIST LIKEWISE.

From the New York Times.
The typewriter is probably one of the
greatest of recent benefits 10 humanity.
It is used now almost entirely for corre-
spondence in business houses. large and
small, by professional men in professional
documents, and for their own personal
use, and 1t is being introduced into edi-
torial rooms for the benefit Of both the
writers and the compositors. There is a
general opinion among experts in diseases
OF the eye that the eye is much relieved
by the emancipation from ordinary hand
writing. Fully twenty years ago man
writing in England upon the care of the
eyes recommended it and an oculist Of to-
day has only favorable words for it,
though he believes it to be a good friend
to his business, a contradiction which he
logically explains.
The fourth volume published this year
OF an authoritative American work upon
diseases of the eye, however, gives all the
small space 1t devotes to the subject to
the ill-effects of the use Of the type
writer
Prescott, the historian, invented appli-
ances by which writing could be done with
little assistance from the vision" wrote
Robert Brudenell Carter ophthalmic sur
geon at st. Georges Hospital, London, in
the English work referred to, published
IN 1880. Or Thursfed, medical officer
sof health. Shrewsbury, produced frame
which enabled him to write without using
his eyes, and another contrivance of more
general value and applicability Is the
American typewriter. ] myself do great
deal OF writing at home, both for publica-
fafr
chine has for the last four years super
seeded the pen almost entirely with me, 50
that / now use it for no other purpose
than TO correct proofs, by iuternncation,
10 sign my name, and to address letters.
Even when learning the use of the instru-
ment, when the letters have to be looked
for one by one, until the fingers become
sufficiently familiar with their several po-
sitions and touch them instincuvely, the
characters are so large that there is no
appreciate strain upon the vision, and
when dexterity Is attained the eyes can
scarcely be said to be used at all.
my own eyes have never oecasioned me
any discomfort, and my own use of the
typewriter rests upon quite different
grounds, but yet my experience enables
me to recommend il very strongly TO per-
sons who having to write much are made
conscious by the exercise that they have
eyes. For the short-slghted 1t is specially
valuable, because there can never be any
disposition to stoop over 1t, so that great
snare to them In writing is altogether set
aside
Next to the advantages of writing are
those of reading The author who wishes
to look over his manuscript is almost as
much helped as the one who wishes to re-
produce it, and the labor of seeing it in
every stage of the process is either abol-
ished or reduced to a minimum. / have
worked the machine for eight consecutive
hours without more than ten minutes in
terrupton, and without my hands being
conscious of fatigue. No systematic writer
should be without 1t unless he is one of
those curiously constituted creatures to
whom the caprice of nature has denied the
gift of mechanical aptitude, even in the
most rudimentary form. Those who pos
eess two left hands, whose fingers are all
thumbs, had better, perhaps leave the
typewriter alone, but for others it is
great relief for weary hands and eyes"
The American work whose only mention
of the typewriter is in few lines in this
fourth volume heads them, THE Type
writer as Cause of Asthenopia."
In causes of eye strain" 1t says ("gen-
orally of primary esophoric and lotus ex>
ophoric types, now becoming increasingly
frequent in poorly nourished and improp-
erly cared for women Of neurasthenic type
Is the ineessant labor imposed on ordlnar-
lily unused eye muscles during the study
of the typewriter, in watching the key
board of the machine before the neces-
eary manual movements have become sur
nciently automatic not to require any fixity
OF gaze upon the variously placed charac-
ters.''
A very small amount of attention to give
10 subject which must have so large a
bearing upon the eyes OF many peoDle
with the now general use Of the typewriter
cannot see" says a Greater New
York oculist, "how learning the KEYS Of
the typewriter could be a strain unon tho
eyes. The general position can be learn-
ca IN haif an hour, or at most in a few
days, so that no effort would be REQUIRED
in finding them, and that would not cause
eye strain. At the same time / might saw
that the typewriter has been a hen 10
my business, and have a number of peo
pie who use the machine under NV care
But l do not think their eyes are injured
by the use of the typewriter, though de-
fects of vision may have been brought 10
notice by its use
There are great many more people
wearing glasses now than there were
thirty or forty years ago. There are many
young people, and old peope-who know
ing this was MOI the case in their dsv-
wonder why it is that there is so much
more trouble with the eyes. There is prob
ably no more trouble with the eyes than
there was; but defects Of visicn are
Drought 60 notice now because the are
so many more things to call attention to
them, and the defects are then remediel
as soon as they are discovered.
Let me go into a large school aud ex-
anime the eyes of the scholars or take
say, 1,5c0 people anywhere and test their
eyes, and ii is not probable that out Of
that number there would be more than
fifty who did not theoretically REQUIRE
glasses-that is 10 say, who did not have
some irregularity of the eyebaN. That does
not mean that the eye is diseased but
there is some slight deformity with which
the individual was born. This affects the
focus OF the eye, and If glasses were worn
they would correct this defect.
1.-THE eye is nothing more or less than a
camera" The doctor took up the seDar
able model Of an eye made of crystal and
porcelain or something of that nature.
about the size Of a hand camera.
IF you know anything about camera"
he went on, you can see The SIN ari ty.
Here we have the diaphragm which Is the
iris, in trent, with a round hole in the
cen er, only in the eve we have The cti,,sol