The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1907-07-24
. DEFECTIVE SIGHT.
MaIfermations of the Eye Cause Many
Defective Visions.

penalties, and defective eyesight in
an ever increasing proportion is one
of them. There are 100000 peo-
pie in England who wear or should
wear glasses, and this number does
not include the defective sight of
age. Modern science, more especial
ly in this country, France and Amer
lea, is coming to the rescue. 1t has
been found that large percentage
of what is technically known as er-
rors of refraction can be cured. The
defect depends on a misshape of the
eyeball. In myopia the eye is too
long. The sufferer is short sighted
and also near sighted-that is to
say, he can see fine print at very
short distance and much moro dis
tinctly than a person with normal
vision. Beyond certain distance
the world is to him a perpetual fog.
People, if he secs them at all, are
misty, like, ghosts. Without glasses
he cuts his fRsnds in the street.
Oh this point hSbecomes very sensi-
tive. Beyond .fhese inconvenience
he does not suffer, in low and mod
crate degrees division at least, and
in compensation he .dispenses with
glasses for reading in old age, which
he would have been forced to wear
if his sight had been normal. The
wonderful old lady of ninety that
one reads about, who can read the
finest print without speetacles, is No
miracle at all, but simply myope
In hypermetropia the eye is too
short. In young life, in low and
moderate degrees at least, there is
no short sight. Objects can be seen
at greater distance than normally.
The patient is long sighted. But,
alas, here his advantage ends. In
nearly all cases there is pain or
headache unless glasses are con-
stantly worn, and reading with the
naked eye is difficult or impossible.
In the third class, astigmatism,
the eye is irregular. The cornea,
the transparent part in front, is
more curved in one direction than in
another. All objects, far OF near,
are blurred. Like the hyperme-
trope, the astigmatic patient usual
ly suffers severely when without
glasses.
What is the outlook for these un-
fortunate people, who, under the
conditions of modern life, are be-
coming more and more numerous?
Fortunately a remedy has been
found. Errors of refraction, as we
have seen, are due to a misshape of
the eye. Can this malformation be
rectified? 1t cannot. The eye is an
elastic ball filled with semifuid.
The shape could no more be changed
than could be the shape of tennis
ball.
Nevertheless there is another way
of accomplishing the desired object.
In the normal eye rays of light focus
naturally on the retina, the sensi-
tive part at the back. In the alb
normal eye the retina does not cor
respond in position to the focusing
point. Though it is not possible to
shift the position of the retina, it is
possible to alter the. position of the
focusing point. That this can be
done depends on the fact that just
behind the pupil is little body
called the lens. The lens is modif-
able in shape, and on that shape de-
pends the position of the focus.
1t is now several years since DR..
Darier of Paris showed that the
lens could be made more convex,
thus throwing the focus farther for
ward and curing hypermetropia. In
1904 the ophthalmic surgeon of the
Battersea Park hospital, London,
went further saa exhibited score
OF cases ct al lands OF error OF re-
fraction ia persons who had been
completely cured of glasses.
AS the cure is now an accom-
plished fact and. as the process is
painless and safe, there is hope for
the great army of spectacle wearers
that is to say, for those who use
glasses because of errors of refrac-
ton, myopia, hypermetropia and as
tigmatism. For the weakened TO-
susing power of age nothing has
- hAAn dnne=Pall Mall Gazette.
The Infant Terrible.
A Washington heights mother
had just sought to punish her
x,o,4bf,I IL. l.