300 ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 



of 1922 were found to have errors of refraction of a 

 handicapping severity at the time that they were exam- 

 ined. About 91% of the men and 92% of the women with 

 defective eyesight had their condition uncorrected. 

 Myopia was the most common error of refraction ob- 

 served. It is more frequent in students from the city. 

 This is due primarily to the racial constitution of the 

 population of large cities, and secondarily to the exces- 

 sive eyestrain incidental to study, and to clerical and 

 industrial occupations. 



As causes of impaired vision, uncorrected astigmatism, 

 short-sightedness and squint aggravated by close work 

 are of the first importance. Dufour has shown that the 

 number of pupils with myopia and the average degree of 

 short-sightedness increases from class to class and with 

 the addition in school demands. This form of myopia 

 is usually primarily due to congenital astigmatism, a 

 very common condition, and to the consequent strain 

 upon the accommodation of the eye in the effort to see. 

 Eisley has reported a series of cases in which astigmatic 

 eyes had passed, while under his observation, from 

 hypermetropic to myopic refraction. 



Neglected squint is an important factor in the serious 

 impairment and destruction of vision. The bad advice 

 to parents that the child beginning to squint will grow 

 out of it, frequently has led to delay until the eye was 

 practically blind. If the serious consequences of pro- 

 crastination were known, children would be no more 

 neglected than if they had appendicitis or diptheria. 



EAR 



Excessive wax in the ear, ceruminosis, was rather a 

 common finding, being present in 16% of the men and 

 8% of the women. Chronic suppuration of the ear was 

 found in the total of ten cases. This is a veiy important 

 finding since the condition impairs hearing, is a center 

 of infection that may produce serious complications, and 

 is rarely cured without a surgical operation for the re- 

 moval of decayed bone. 



Middle-ear disease, which causes eighty-five to ninety 

 per cent of all deafness, usually has its origin in the naso- 



