FOCALIZATION.
The act of focalization is a muscular act and requires an effort, an output of nervous energy, just as much in
proportion as any other muscular act, such as lifting a weight or shoving a saw or a jack plane. The eye that is normally shaped forms pictures of objects, more than a few feet distant, on its back wall without any muscular effort, and has to focalize only when engaged in near work. But the oversighted eye is compelled to do this extra work all the time, except when closed. If it did not focalize, it would see indistinctly. This it refuses to do, independently of any volition on the part of its owner. The eye that can see distinctly will see distinctly, no matter how great the strain, and this by a volition apparently entirely its own. The results are headache, vertigo, nausea, nervousness, irritability, and other disagreeable reflex conditions, besides the pain and inflammation, and other symptoms manifested in the eyes themselves. Of course, the only remedy in such cases is glasses, and these glasses should be carefully selected by a competent person, and should be worn as much of the time as is necessary to relieve the eye strain. I find in Taggart's Times, February 5, 1888, the following: "A French philosopher has said that a man who wears gold-bowed spectacles always admires himself, and it would seem as though spectacles were becoming a sort of badge of distinction, since young and old who have the slightest excuse for using them put them on.
HEADACHE.
"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.
FLUFFY BANGS.
"But this is not all. Girls wear long and fluffy bangs, intercepting the sight, and both boys and girls seldom bathe their faces with clear cold water. In the matutinal face washing the eyes are usually closed, while a wet towel is delicately passed over the eyelids. Few persons can bear the pain of opening their eyes wide in a basin of cold water, yet Mr. A. M. Spangler told, in his interesting lecture on Nassau, how the native population would dive to the bottom of the sea and bring up shells, sponges, etc., that had been pointed out to them by curious visitors through a sea glass. Not only men divers, but also little boys and girls could keep their eyes open in the water and search for cents which had been thrown in for them to pick up. This shows that even salt water is not injurious to eyes accustomed to it, and that habit makes the eye unnaturally sensitive."