"When one suffers from headache, he is told that he overstrains the nerves
of the eyes, and must relieve this by the use of spectacles. When things
dance before the sight, the cure for that is also spectacles; and when
tired with close attention to work, the cure for wearied eyes is not rest,
but spectacles.
"People who live much out of doors are usually very keen-sighted, owing
probably to the ever-varying impressions made on the eyes, and this might
reasonably suggest that the proper relief for a great many eye troubles
would be a change from overwork."
I can only say that the person who wrote it seems not only to be
prejudiced against glasses, but to know very little of the anatomy and
physiology of the eye. The fact is that oversighted and astigmatic eyes,
needing glasses to relieve the constant and severe strain upon the
accommodative muscular apparatus, are benefited by rest and by change of
air and occupation only to a limited degree. Real rest for such eyes is
possible only from the use of glasses. Moreover, it is not possible for
all who suffer from fatigue of the eyes to take the time for rest. It is
necessary for many to use their eyes daily and almost constantly in order
to make a living for themselves and for those dependent upon them. There
is much more good sense in the paragraphs which follow and which are
extracted from the same article.
"It is not surprising that so many school children suffer with weak eyes
when we consider the conditions under which they are forced to use them.
The very fact that the light in many school rooms is twice strained
through glass partitions before it penetrates the inside rooms is in
itself a severe test of sight. The preponderance of sash-wood over the
panes of glass is anything but propitious to clear seeing. With heads bent
over desks doing arithmetical examples, or studying the fine printed
school books, or reading their own imperfect handwriting from which many
of the lessons must be learned, the only wonder is that all the little
ones are not purblind before they reach the grammar schools.