EFFECTS OF STUDY ON THE EYESIGHT. 77 



Medical Association, to examine and report upon the effects of study 

 upon the eyes of pupils of the public schools of Buffalo. In March 

 he reported that he had examined 1,003 scholars, of whom he found 

 twenty per cent, to be near-sighted, and twelve per cent, over sighted; 

 that not a single case of near-sight was found among the children six 

 years old and under ; but that at seven years of age five per cent, 

 had acquired near-sight ; at eleven there were eleven per cent. ; at 

 thirteen there were nineteen per cent. ; and at eighteen twenty-six 

 per cent. Among those who had continued in the schools beyond 

 the a<Te of twenty-one years, he found no less than forty-three per 

 cent, with near-sight. He says that Dr. Agnew had sent him blanks 

 for the name, age, sex, and height ; for the exact size of desks and 

 seats ; also, for each room, the color of the walls, number of windows, 

 and whether to the right, left, front, or rear; the number of square 

 feet in each window, and the distance of adjoining buildings which 

 mi.j;ht obstruct the light. Also, for methods of teaching by large ob- 

 jects, the hours of study, number of recesses, methods of heating and 

 ventilation, and for the cubic feet of air to each individual. The 

 greatest care was exercised to record : 1. The precise condition of 

 the pupils' vision, whether healthy or not ; and, if abnormal, to what 

 degree. 2. The usual position of the body when studying. 3. Illu- 

 mination of the school-room. 4. The relaxation given to the eye 

 alone, or to the whole body. 6. The general hygienic surroundings 

 of the pupil. 



He then describes the process of individual examination: Haifa 

 dozen scholars at a time were sent into a class-room, on one of the 

 walls of which had been hung a card of letters known to oculists as 

 " Snellen's test-types." The scholars were placed at a distance of 

 twenty feet from these letters, and asked to read the lowest line, 

 the letters being f -inch Gothic. Those who can pass this test are not 

 near-sighted, Then there is held before the eye of each a weak con- 

 vex glass, such as old people are accustomed to wear. If he cannot 

 see so well as without it, lie is not far-sighted. 1 In some cases of un- 

 usually imperfect vision, the ophthalmoscope was employed. 



During the summer of 1876, Dr. E. G. Loring, Jr., of New York, 

 assisted by Dr. R. H. Derby, examined the sight of 2,000 pupils of 

 the Twelfth Street public school and the normal school in Sixty-sixth 

 Street, New York. Their ages ranged from six to twenty-one years. 

 As in the other examinations cited, myopia was found to affect a 

 very small percentage of the pupils in their first year, and to increase 

 yearly and largely thereafter, to the close of school life ; and that 

 the average degree of near-sight increases with the age up to twenty- 

 seven years. His report was read before the Medical Congress in 

 Philadelphia, in September, 1876. 



In the fall of 1875, Dr. Hasket Derby, of Boston, commenced a 



1 These are approximate tests. 



