[Report 1916] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough.

  • Darlington (England). County Borough Council.
Date:
1916
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: [Report 1916] / Medical Officer of Health, Darlington County Borough. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    for if allowed to continue the eye which squints most always goes blind; a fearful calamity for a child to become half blind at the beginning of its career, especially since it is curable by glasses or by glasses with an operation which in no way en- dangers the child’s life or health. I have no hesitation in saying that a parent who allows a child to continue to squint is guilty of culpable neglect and should be jprosecuted. I find only about 4 per cent of the cases examined are born with a deficiency of eyesight incapable of improvement by glasses or other treatment. I am surprised at the small number of simple spherical corrections (155) and the large proportion of simple or mixed Astigmia, but 1 can safely predict that if these glasses are worn constantly during the school period, at least two-thirds of these eyes, having the strain on them removed by the glasses, will develope towards the normal (or usual) instead of going still further wrong as they must do if the glasses are not worn or had not been prescribed. Then what of the remaining third ? In every case the parents have had carefully explained to them that an occupation must be chosen for these in which glasses can be worn; by this much disappointment will* be prevented, caused by preparing a child for a calling and sud- denly finding when submitted to the eye examination that the sight is deficient. It is interesting to notice that in 100 cases the eyeballs were found to be near sighted in the horizontal meridian and (ar sighted in the vertical, due doubtless to the pressure of the eyelids in altering the shape of the eyeball, especially where the nutrition ot the child and its surroundings are not entirely satisfactory. These cases have been selected by the teachers from a large number of children, and will give, I feel pretty sure, the average amount of eye trouble amongst children generally in the schools.