The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1917-10-24
a Little Talk on the Human Eye
(By DR.. j. vi. IsraeIson, Registered
OptOm etriStO

| 1t is said that the value of any
need for it, and on this principle we
must regard eyesight as the most
valuable of all human senses or facul-
ties. AS blindness is the most woeful
of afflictions. is eyesight the most
inestimable of blessings, andso con
sidered, you can not but regard your
eyes as the most important part of
your animal organism. This comes
home to us all the more at this time
when we read Of the awful destruc-
ton of eyesight in those engaged in
the present war, and when we con-
slider that thousands and thousands
Of our own young countrymen may
soon be exposed to this great dam
ger we stand appalled,.
AS the most invaluable of our
senses, therefore, and as the supreme
essential of happy existence. do you
give your eyes attention in proportion
to their importance; do you protect
them with a solicitude founded on a
just realization of what their loss
would mean?
Most people-you included, perhaps
are extremely negligent in their re-
gard to their eyes, and very culpably
so in regard to childrens. In fact
it would seem that the most delicate
ly-constituted and sensitive Of all the
organs Of sense is the one that gives
the least anxiety Consider your own
case. If you notice a slight deafness
in one or both ears. you rush in
alarm to surgeon. If your child
complains Of like failing, you attend
10 1t with equal promptness. Yet
you go on, possibly, day after day,
feeling that you have eyes or suf-
fering from headache; you notice your
boy frowning with half closed lids at
his school book; you scold your little
girl for "leering so" all symptoms Of
trist remains unconsulted, although it
is we'll known that defects Of vision
never disappear of their own accord.
This dangerous negligence of the
eyes. which is specially to be deplor-
cd in this age of indiscriminate
reading and reckless eyestraining
seem to be due partly to prejudice
against the wearing Of glasses, and
partly to popular ignorance of the
eye as an optical instrument and it's
more usual defects. To indicate this
pernicious prejudice and to tell the
public enuogh about the eye to awake
them to the necessity of greater at
tention to it is duty not only Of the
optometrist like myself, but of the
public at large and the daily press
and all Instruments Of human uplift
The Eye as an Optical Instrument.
The eye is the most wonderful Of all
the organs of sense. The organs Of
touch, taste and smell. to perform
their functions, must be placed in ac-
tual contact with the substances that
excite their activity; but the eye is
equally sensitive to the impressions OF
light whether it comes from an OBJ
ject close at hand or from the i'm
nieasurably distant fixed stars. Then
again, the eye is so directly and init
mately connected with the mind that
it can be made to express the strong
est passions and most tumultOus emo
tiOns, as we'll as the gentlest thoughts
and most delicate sentiments
But it is with the eye as an optical
instrument that we and you are con-
cerned. AS such, il will be best un-
era. of which it is the prototype.
Images of external objects are form
led in the eye exactly as they are
formed on the focusing screen in a
photographers camera. The eye
light passes into the eyeball through
the pupil, which is simply an aper-
ture in the center Of the iris or col
ored portion of the eye. the sole fun
ction of the opening being admission
of light. 1t is suggestive of popu-
lar Ignorance OF the eye that we some
times hear the expression. He had
his pupil taken out" which is just as
absurd as to say: The door had the
kcyhole taken out.
Thus admitted. through the pupil,
the course of the light rays is similar
to their course in the camera. Most
people are acquainted with the con-
vex lens Of the camera, which can be
moved in and out. so that, whatever
the distance of the object clea,
image will be thrown on the sensitive