The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-11-25
HOW TO CARE FOR EYES.
AGE-OLD TRADITIONS EXPLODED
 BY AN OCULTST.

E Them-Proper Conditions for Read.
 ing and study--stmple Remedies fo, Tired Eyes.
 The eyes shouldn't be coddled," said
 the distinguished oculist. Possibly the 2 theory was not wholly disinterested.
 Oculists must live.
 "One's eyes are intended to meet
 ones usual requirements" he contin-
 yued. "If they will not do it, it is be-, cause something is wrong with them.
 Right that wrong by glasses that pro- duce normal visual conditions. Then
 go ahead. Of course. there are some
 forms of work and of folly that are par
 ticularly disastrous to the eyes, but the
 eyes of a healthy person will stand any
 abuse that doesn't pass reason.
 Take this matter of reading on the cars. It is trifle hard on the eyes, but
 Ut ought not to make trouble. If it
 does, it is because the person needs x glasses; and, in his place, l would get < proper glasses and go on with my read
 ing. Then, if my eyes still troubled me, sEI would know there was something seri- 8nNsly out of order in them or in my S general health, and I would look into < the matter thoroughly.
 IsAa IssaAag "IJn willingness to wear glasses is at the root of more eye trouble than any
 other one thing. That is why women
 suffer more with their eyes than men do. Their vanity prevents their adopt ing the obvious remedy for the trouble,
 until the need becomes too urgent to be
 set aside. The ordinary man hates the
 incpnvenience of glasses, but doesn't !, apologize because they are unbecoming.
 "Pve wondered good deal about
 this question of glasses. ] don't know < that believe it worth while to go to a
 good oculist and pay his fee. unless one Ills sure the trouble is a serious one. It is all matter of dollars and cents. If
 man is rich, let him go to the best oc- < uiist he can find and increase his Sschances of satisfactory glasses to the N maKimum; but, personally, if money
 were an object to me. I'd gamble on my chances of getting what l needed at Ma good opticians shop. The chance
 would be good. I suppose it is bad pol
 icy to advance the theory, but, as a
 matter of fact, most people can get the EEiaeees they need without consulting an ' ocuIist, who, by virtue of experience
 and ability, has the right to charge a
 whopping fee. At any rate the scale Of
 chance justifies the experiment. If it
 doesn't succeed, here are we standing ready to do the work and charge for it. Naturally, one must exercise com
 mon sense in the use of ones eyes. When l say don't coddle them,' I don't mean that one must put them to abso- slutely irrational strain. I've had pa sstients who ruined their eyes for life by
 trying to watch an eclipse without smoked glass, and I've seen searchlight
 men who looked at the light until they burned their retina beyond cure; but
 reading, writing, theater-going and all that sort of thing ought not to strain normal eyes or eyes properly spectacied.
 "There are a lot of traditions about caring for the eyes that ought to be scattsred to the four winds. They were exploded long ago, but the public clings ato them and we professional men might as well tilt against windmills as against sa time-honored belief I suppose that Ito the end of time, mother will believe she Is doing the wise thing for her stu dent son by putting him in cornpara- lively dark room, with a shade over his eyes and the light from shaded lamp lfaliing across his left shoulder, upon tie pages of his book. That's the real thing for students. \ II know grown-up and intelligent men who pride themselves upon doing their reading or studying in that fash lon That theory is dead, dead as Pharaom: but the public hasn't buried 'it
 Every oculist to-day knows that the | glare of light on the book contrasted with the shade of the room and its oth- CT objects is harmful to the eyes. If the reader lifts his eyes even for sec ond, from the page, he gives his ocular nerves a wrench and strain. If one reads in the evening one should do it | irf a room we'll lighted throughout. The | lights should be high above one's head, | entirely out of ocular range unless one | should choose to look up at them. The | more the quantity and prevasiveness of l the artificial light is like daylight, the better for the eyes I'm not advising the glare of a dairy kitchen, but an even. clear all-pervading light, by which one can read without having an extra light to fall directly upon the book There are your modern ideal con- ditions for reading and study: but it isn't always possible to have such light and if 1t were, people wouldn't give up their shades and student lamps.
 sTheater and opera try the eyes for tfe same reason that the ordinary read inc light does. The lights are turned dowl, in the auditorium and concentra- ted on the stage and the eyes are con- stantly called upon to adjust them selves to rapid change from dark to light The only way to mitigate the evil is to avoid looking at anything at HI in the darkened house. while the curtain is up; not even at the compan- lon sitting beside one Consulting the programme in the gloom and then turn Ing one's eyes back to the brilliant stage is hard on any eyes. Strong eyes should stand it, but there's no use in imposing upon even a willing worker.
 '.Worry will affect the eyes as quick vas anything in the world People of- ,en come to me and tell me they have njured their eyes by crying great leaI. That is all nonsense. Nothing Ierfous ever happens to the eyes from nere crying; but the thing that makes {