THE CARE OF THE EYES.[8]

THE CARE OF THE EYES.[8]

By Prof. David Webster, M.D.

SPECTACLES.

A vast amount of popular misapprehension and prejudice exists as to the use of spectacles. Many persons who need them object to wearing them for various reasons. Some fear that it will lead their friends to suspect that they are getting old. Others think it will cause them to be suspected of wishing to appear learned or cultured. Some persons do not want to begin to wear them lest, having acquired the habit, they may not be able to leave them off or to see well without them. Others again object to glasses only on account of their inconvenience. I have personally met with many of all these classes of persons, but I have frequently heard of another class that I have never met with, namely, those who do not need glasses, but who wear them just for effect and to attract attention. Now, the simple truth is that there are just two good reasons for wearing spectacles, and only two. One is that we may see better, the other is that our eyes may be relieved of strain. Often both these reasons are combined in the same case. Many children begin to be near-sighted after they have attended school a few years. They first find it out by observing that they cannot see letters or figures on the blackboard as far as the other children. They can use their eyes as much as they want to without fatigue or blurring, or smarting, or burning, or itching, or pain in the eyes, or headache. In short, they show no symptoms of eye strain. They simply do not see distant objects distinctly. Such children should be fitted with glasses at once that will enable them to see as well as others at a distance, and these glasses should be worn constantly. The child should be instructed to take them off only when necessary to wipe them or to wipe or bathe the eyes and on going to bed. The sooner the eyes get accustomed to them the less likely is the near-sightedness to increase. Moreover, the child who sees clearly only a few feet away from him loses a very important part of his education. Our eyes gather information for us when we are least thinking of it, by taking cognizance of the many objects that come within our field of vision just as our ears gather material for the proper development of our minds in listening to general conversation or to the sounds of nature and of busy life about us. It is the duty of every one to make the best possible use of the faculties the Creator has bestowed upon him. The near-sighted person who does not have his vision corrected by glasses fails in the performance of this duty.

Again, the time comes in the life of every one who is not near-sighted, and who lives to a good old age, when he cannot see near objects well without glasses. Between the ages of 40 and 50, the crystalline lenses of his eyes having hardened along with the other tissues of his body, he finds it impossible to focalize as he used to. He holds his book farther and farther away from his eyes, and finally he finds that he cannot read fine print at all, or without straining his eyes. Then he must accept the unpleasant fact that he is getting old-sighted, and if he wishes to use, and not abuse, his eyes, he must get glasses to take the place of his lost accommodation and with which he can read easily. Some persons who are near-sighted in one eye and far-sighted in the other never need glasses, but always do their reading and other near work with the near-sighted eye and their distant seeing with the far-sighted eye. I believe I read a long time ago, in an article by himself in the New York Ledger, that this was the case with the late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. But the vast majority of persons who wear glasses, both for the distance and for the near, can see quite as well without them. They do not wear them in order to be able to see, but in order to have the strain removed from their eyes, and to be relieved from the many disagreeable symptoms, both direct and reflex, that result from eye strain.

FOCALIZATION.

The act of focalization is a muscular act and requires an effort, an output of nervous energy, just as much in 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."

As to the statement that "people who live much out of doors are usually very keen-sighted," it is an expression of a popular idea, but, like most popular ideas, is true only to a limited extent. The fact is that persons who do not live much out of doors generally use their eyes more for near work, such as reading, sewing, drawing, etc., and hence are more likely to develop near-sightedness. Persons living indoors who are not near-sighted are able to see as well and as far as those who live outdoors. It is true that the old sailor will recognize a ship in the horizon, or any other distant object at sea, sooner than a landsman. But it is not because he is any more "keen-sighted." It is because he knows just what to look for. He has seen such objects amid similar surroundings a thousand times, and recognizes them, even though his vision be considerably impaired by disease. I have often found, on testing the vision of such persons, that it was not more than one-half the normal, and yet they declared, and, I believe, conscientiously so, that they could discern a ship at sea as far as any one. A very large proportion of the North American Indians, who live much out of doors, have poor sight from inflammatory diseases of their eyes caused by exposure to smoke in their wigwams, and by contagious eye diseases, the propagation of which is favored by their unsanitary methods of living. But, no doubt, many of them can discern distant objects upon the prairies and in the forests farther than their white brothers because of their greater familiarity with the appearances of such objects.

It seems to me that the practice of opening the eyes under water is not to be specially recommended, except in cases of necessity. While many bear it well, to others it is more or less painful and irritating. Moreover, nature furnishes a fluid with which to wash the eyeballs, and applies it herself. It is only necessary to keep the eyelids scrupulously clean, and especially the edges of the eyelids where the eyelashes grow out. For bathing the eyelids when uninflamed, nothing is better than pure cold water. When the eyes become red and inflamed, the best domestic remedy is salt and water, about a teaspoonful to the pint, and applied warm or cold, or at whatever temperature seems most agreeable to the eyes in any particular case.

NO POULTICES.

Under no circumstances should poultices be applied to the eyes unless ordered by a physician. I have seen many cases in which a simple inflammation of the inside lining of the eyelids had been greatly aggravated by bread and milk poultices, or tea leaves, bound upon the closed eyelids and left on overnight. In fact, a distinguished professor of diseases of the eye has formulated the results of his observations thus: "Poultices spoil eyes."

All patent eye washes, eye salves, and other remedies advertised to cure all diseases of the eye should be avoided. Different diseases require different remedies. What will benefit one may injure another. When one gets something the matter with his eyes and resorts to the use of a patent medicine for its relief, he is in danger of losing valuable time. He may lose an eye from want of proper treatment at the outset of the disease. In a great city like New York, every one may easily avail himself of the services of the most skillful physician. If unable to visit them at their offices and pay their fees, they may consult them at the numerous dispensaries, hospitals, and medical schools and colleges, where it will cost them nothing.

USE OF INFLAMED EYES.

A lesson that is very difficult for many of us to learn is that inflamed eyes should not be used actively. Children with sore eyes should not be allowed to go to school for two reasons. First, the use of their eyes in reading will prevent or retard their recovery. Secondly, sore eyes are usually communicable, and one such child may infect a whole school. It is highly important that all persons with inflamed eyes should use only their own wash basins, towels, and handkerchiefs, and so avoid spreading the disease. We not infrequently see a catarrhal inflammation of the eyes run through a whole family. Of course, they catch it one from another, and, as there is no disease of the eye which is, like measles, or scarlet fever, or smallpox, communicable through the air, such spread of the disease might easily be prevented by proper care of the person first affected. Persons whose eyes are sensitive to light should not be kept in dark rooms, which are always unhealthy. They may have their eyes protected by shades or by smoke colored glasses, but should keep them open and exposed to the air, and should remain out of doors as much as possible.

EFFECT OF ALCOHOL AND TOBACCO UPON THE EYES.

I must not close without warning my hearers against the baneful effects of alcohol and tobacco upon the eyes. It is not uncommon for the eye surgeon to meet with persons who have become partially blind from the effects of these poisons upon their optic nerves. Of course, only a small proportion of those who use alcohol and tobacco to excess are affected in this way, but this renders it none the less certain that impaired sight is one of the dangers that we may avoid by abstaining from the use of these unnecessary and poisonous luxuries.