The Hartford herald. [volume] (Hartford, Ky.) 1875-1926, 1922-01-25
AMERICANS LOSING SIGHT,
SAYS BRITISH SPECIALIST

New York, Jan. Give Americana
are losing our eyesighti
In another hundred years each
one OF us, man, woman and little
child, will go about in spectacles.
We shall have become handicapped
nation peering into the future thru
a sort of visual defeat.
In 200 yeaIs!- Perhaps by then
our optic nerves may have died
away, like any living thing subject
ed to long abuse. and we shall be
forced to make our way thru
shsrpened sense Of touch, smell,
hearing. but without light.
These startling predictions were
presented to me today by the latest
OF English scientists TO visit our
shores in search Of data on what ne
calls the unbelievable activities and
accomplishments of the life we lead
He wishes to ascertain their effect
upon our eyesight.
He is DR.. Maurice Bart Bloom,
whose experiments In London have
attracted the attention and endorse
ment of such eminent authorities as
Sir oliver Lodge, Samuel Judd
Lewis, and Prof. Martin Lowery of
Cambridge University.
Talks M White Ni0hts
The keen-eyed young man, who
insists that no one under 40 should
even think of having optical weak
ness. declared our absesaon for
glory and haste and the pace that
kills is doing it all.
You wonderful people have
pierced the sky with your sky scrap
ers; they stand like monuments to
Gargantuan imagination. But they
also stand like screens before your
eyes, shutting off natures light, and
destroying spaces necessary to vi
sion.
Your white nights are like moth
ing any place on earth. Broadway
after O'Clock is handful of hlaz-
ing jewels tossed into the lap of the
city. But each light and cross light
striking upon the retina of the eve
is menace to sight. Thus it is all
across your country; your hurrying
spirit is impatient of darkness; you
must have day and so the nerves
have no rest in the night.
With your endless city streets
and your endless railways you do
not walk sufficiently to give the
eyes their normal amount of exer-
else. Or if you walk at all your eyes
are overtaxed. For while country
green and calm progress of moving
things rest the optic nerves, nothing
but superhuman effort could follow
such movement as there is in the
streets of New York, for example.
Will Be Universal
"One hundred years ago there
was little excitement incidental to
living. Fifty years ago few wore
glasses. In 100 years from now
glasses will be universal as eyes, un-
ess there is radical change in liv-
ng arrangements"
Dr.. Bloom suggested the follow
ng simple exercises, to be gone thru
zach morning as settling up" prac-
ice for strengthening the eyes. He
urged them for women
whose eyes, he said are more inclin-
I'd toward weakness than mems.
Standing at attention in your
DOM, look at the highest angle of
he ceiling without moving the head
while you count ten.
Perform a similar exercise while
ooking at the low angle of the floor,
The chin must be raised
Look out of the window to the
'arthest object on the horizon level
With your direct gaze. Count 100.
Bring the eyes to the nearest OBJ
Get, holding position. and count 100.
Go thru these movements several
lines; eyes right, eyes left. eyes up
yes down.
DR.. Bloom particularly urges that
'uch revision of school work be con-
'idered as to make it possible for
study hours to be in the brightest
part Of the daytime. even If recita-
ions must be later. Most Difficult
les Of light he said begin when
children study under artificial light.