The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-01-08
CONSERVATION OF EYEsrGHT

When the mall to this column Is very heavy the disposal of the paper after we have finished
 with the letters becomes q problem. Ordinarily | the automatic chucker carries everything
 down to the automatic incinerator, but if we | force the thing too hard the works become
 choked and then we have q time clearing for action. At that, we'd never have any serious | trouble were 1t not for the vast quantities of | propaganda coming from all sorts of conmer- | cial institutions. You know nowadays a firm | can't sell soap for it's value as a cleansing
 agent or cheese for It's food value; no, they and issue regular bulletins to the press, telling 1 of tho amazing effects soap and cheese have on the works here get all stopped up with such l stuff feel mad. From the private observations editors have made about this racket, l
 shouldn't wonder If a fellow might not publish day.
 In the past year or two I have been receiv- Ing tremendous bundles of propaganda from | organizations concerned with blindness and the conservation Of eyeslght, and while strive to | keep In touch with any actual developments of interest to readers have found all this stuff | impossible. It merely goes to burden the chucker.
 ] But the other day some reader sent mo a copy of "The News Letter on Sight Conserva- 1 tion," and this appears in the regular maga-
 zine form with fairly brief abstracts of recent
 scientific work dealing with eyesght, and with
 out the tIresome Released for Immediate | fuel carries am tempted to hold onto the lit- | tie magazine and glance 1t through. In doing so l find this:
 Stopping Said to Cause Eye Trouble.- According to a report . claimed by Prof Lewngshown head of the ophthalmologcal department, Berlin University, that near sightedness is connected with stepping pos ture rather than that it is hereditary. He believes the outward sinking of the eyeball because of its own weight, induced by con- tinuous prolonged inclination of head and shoulders in a stopping position, predisposes to shortsightedness. The. eyeball tends to elongate Other ophthalmoogists corrobor-
 ating say short -sightedness is rare in certain vacations notably jewellers and fine needle.
 workers due to the fact that they work with only slight stopping. Nearslghtedness was artificially induced in animals by retaining the axes of their eyeballs in q more less perpendicular position for length of time. One month of this produced the effect in
 monkeys.
 Then on another page of the same copy I found another abstract, about acquired myopia (short near sightedness).
 Dr r. A. Newman said in American Jour
 nal of Ophthalmology that the primary le- sion in myopia is a yielding of the elastic membrane of the choroid (whatever that may bel, the exciting cause being excessive accommodation and use of the eyes under unsa tisfactory conditions. Pred SD sing causes are bad heredlty. faulty nutrition dur ing prenatal life and improper diet in in- | fancy. pr Newman advises that home study | under age of twelve years and excessive study at the age of puberty (early 'teens) be avoided. He advises outdoor life and plenty of daily exercise.
 | The homework hounds in public schools | should be curbed by parents who have fair regard for tho eyesigbt of young children. | In n later talk we'll hear how 74-year-old
 man has retained good eyesight