Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1907-06-12
DEFECTIVE SIGHT.
MaIformations of the Eye Cause Many
Defective Visions.

Defective Visions.
Advanced civilization brings its
penalties, and defective eyesight in
an ever-increasing proportion is one
of them. There are 100000 people
in England who wear or should wear
glasses, and this number does not in
clude the defective sight of age. Mod
ern science, more especially in this
country, France and America, is COM
ing to the rescue. It has been found
that a large percentage of what is
technically known as errors of refrac-
ton can be cured. The defect de-
ponds on misshape of the eyeball
In myopia the eye is too long. The
sufferer is short sighed and also
near sighted. That is to say, he can
see fine print ait a very short distance
and much more distinctly than a per-
son with normal vision. Beyond a
certain distance the world is to him
a perpetual fog. People, if he sees
them at all, are misty, like ghosts.
Without glasses, he cuts his friends
in the street. On this point he be-
comes very sensitive. Beyond these
inconvenience he does not suffer, in
low and moderate degrees Of vision at
least, and in compensation he dis
penses 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 spectacoes, 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 a great
er distance than normally. The pa
tient is long sighted. But, alas! here
his advantage ends. In nearly all
cases there is pain or headache un-
less glasses are constantly worn, and
reading with the naked eye is diff
cult 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 an
other. All objects, far or near, are
blurred. Like the hypermetrope, the
astigmatic patient usually suffers Sc
verely when without glasses.
What is the outlook for these I'M
fortunate people, who, under the con-
ditions of modern life, are becoming
more and more numerous? Fortunate
ly, a remedy has been found. En-
rors of refraction, as we have seen,
are due to q misshape Of the eye. Can
this malformation be rectified? 1t
cannot. The eye is an elastic ball,
filled with a semi-fuid. 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 sensitive
part at the back. In the abnormal
eye the retina does not correspond 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 modifable in shape, and on that
shape depends the position OF the
focus.
Ii is now several years since DR..
Darier. of Paris, showed that the lens
could be made more convex, thus
throwing the focus further forward
and curing hypermetropia. In 1904
the ophthalmic surgeon Of the Bat
tersea Park Hospital, London, went
further, and exhibited a score OF cases
of all kinds of error of refraction IN
persons who had been completely
cured of glasses.
AS the cure is now an accomplish
ed fact, and as the process is PAIN
less and safe, there is hope TO the
great army Of spectacle wearers. That
is to say, for those who use glasses
beca Use of errors of refraction, myo-
pia, hypermetropia and astigmatfsm.
For the weakened focusing power OF
age nothing has yet been done.-Pall