Myopia (commonly called near-sightedness,) in its various phases / by Julian J. Chisholm.

  • Chisolm, Julian John, 1830-1903.
Date:
[1880]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Myopia (commonly called near-sightedness,) in its various phases / by Julian J. Chisholm. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the age of 20, a good eye can be abused by over-work in many ways, but without producing myopia. One-fourth of the same application at the age of io, with an eye yet soft in the structure of its sustaining envelopes, would cause the eye to give way in its back wall, and bring about the disease of near-sightedness. Myopia is most frequently an acquired condition, dependent upon the over-use of the eyes at an early age, and especially during school life. This condition, although excited immediately by the over- work of the organ, can be hastened and augmented by the phys- ical condition of the scholar and his surroundings. Nothing is so conducive to defective health of the growing body, the eye included; as the crowding of many children in badly ventilated and defectively lighted school ropms, in which they are made to sit day after day, and for many consecutive hours. This con- fined atmosphere is tainted with the exhalations from their own bodies, and in winter often with the noxious gases of defective stoves. Into these school rooms, during the many long winter months, fresh wholesome air is admitted only through the acci- dental opening of a door to give entrance or exit to some of the numerous inmates. Living for so many hours a day in this im- pure air of the school room, the body becomes slowly enfeebled, and the tissues lose their power of resistance. They become flabby and soft, and when pressure is made upon them from over-exertion, they give way. In most of our schools, there seems to be one paramount ob- jest before the minds of the teachers, and. it absorbs every other consideration. Children are sent to them to have their brains developed, and the rest of their bodies seems to be of very sec- ondary consideration to the teacher. School books are, there- fore multiplied ad nauseam, and lessons lengthened without mercy, necessitating additional hours of prolonged study out of school, which can be so much more profitably spent in bodily exercise. Teachers will not be sufficiently impressed with the important fact that the eye, especially in its growing state, is capable of abuse; and that while excessive use tends to increase the fluid contents of the visual organ, it requires a matured eye-