The fond parents finding that the vitiated air of the city is making their once rosy-cheeked children turn pale, seek a remedy in the fresh air of the country. The children find their way to city schools; this necessitates traveling so many miles a day in railway cars. The children take this opportunity of preparing their studies while en route to the city, and here is where they get their first eye-strain. Children have the example set them by their parents or business men, who read the daily papers on the trains. Children are great imitators, and when their attention is called to the evil, quote their parents' example, and they follow it. No wonder each generation is growing more effeminate.
The light in sick rooms should never fall directly on the eyes, nor should the rooms be either too dark or too light.
The Esquimaux and Indians long ago noted the fact that sunlight reflected from freshly fallen snow would soon cause blindness.
The natives of northern Africa blacken themselves around the eyes to prevent ophthalmia from the glare of the hot sand. In Fiji the natives, when they go fishing, blacken their faces. My friend. Dr. Bartelott, presented me with a pair of eye protectors, which he brought from Alaska. The natives use them to protect themselves from snow blindness. These snow spectacles, or snow eyes, as they are called, are usually made out of pine wood, which is washed upon their shores, drift wood from southern climes.
The posterior surface is deeply excavated, to prevent its obstructing the free motion of the eye lids; on each side a notch is cut at the lower margin to allow a free passage for the tears. The upper margin of the front surface is more prominent than the under, to act as a shade to the eyes. The inner surface is blackened to absorb the excessive light. The openings are horizontal slits. The eyes are thus protected from the dazzling effect of the light.
My friend, Dr. Grady, of Omaha, communicated to me a history of three hunters who almost lost their eyesight by too long exposure to the bright rays of the sun falling on snow.
The abuse of tobacco leads to impairment of vision in the growing youth. Cigarette smoking is an evil. I am inclined to believe that the poison inhaled arrests the growth of boys; surely it prevents a mental development, and, when carried to excess, affects vision more by lessening the power of nerve conduction than acting directly on the eye.
It is not the one cigarette which the boy smokes that does the harm, but it is the one, two, or three packages smoked daily. This excessive smoking thoroughly perverts all the functions which should be at their best to aid this growing youth. First we have failing digestion, restless nights, suspension of growth, lack of mental development, the loss of nerve tone, loss of the power of accommodation in vision, failing sight, headaches, enfeeblement of the heart. Let a man who is a habitual smoker of cigars attempt to smoke even one package of cigarettes and he will complain of nausea, dry throat, and loss of appetite. If a strong man is so much affected by this poison, how much less can a boy resist the inroads of such poisons? In Germany the law forbids the sale of cigarettes to growing boys. New York State has a similar law, and why should our own or any other State be behind in passing prohibitory laws against this evil?—and this is a growing evil.
I have never seen a case of tobacco amblyopia in boyhood, but such a condition is not infrequent in adults. In boys the action of nicotine acts especially upon the heart, the impulse is rendered weaker and intermittent, and many young boys lay the seeds of organic disease which sooner or later culminates fatally. Boys should be prohibited from smoking, first by their parents, second by law, but not such laws whose enforcement is a failure, third by placing a heavy fine upon dealers who sell to minors. The pernicious evil of intoxication is no less an evil upon the nervous system of a youth than is the habit of cigarette smoking, but, fortunately, this habit is less common. Having traced from aboriginal man to the present civilized individual the cause of his myopia, what must we do to prevent a further deterioration of vision? Unfortunately, the physician of our country is not, as I am told, like the Japanese physician. Our medical men are called to attend people who are ill and to try to get them well—the Japanese physician is paid only to keep his patients in health.
The first effort parents should make is to see that their children have plenty of outdoor exercise. Good, warm clothing in winter, and light texture cloth in summer. A great difference of opinion exists as to the age at which a child should begin its studies. I feel sure that the boy who commences his studies at ten will far outrun the one who commences study at six. Every child should commence his lessons in the best kindergarten, the nursery. Let object lessons be his primer—let him be taught by word of mouth—then, when his brain is what it should be for a boy of ten, his eyes will be the better able to bear the fatigue of the burdens which will be forced upon him. Listen to what Milton has left on record as a warning to those young boys or girls who insist upon reading or studying at night with bad illumination.