THE EYES 249 



and by going to bed early the trying artificial lights are 

 avoided. The following is a good motto to remember : 



Early to bed, not too early to rise, 

 Is an excellent balm for tired eyes. 



But how foolish it seems to be careful of so many 

 things concerning such little organs as the eyes ! Ask 

 a person with weak eyes for his opinion, or get the next 

 blind man you meet to tell what he thinks about it. 

 What would they not give for your eyes ! What care 

 they would take of theirs, if through any good fortune 

 the lost power of seeing should be restored ! A fact 

 well worth considering in this connection is that a 

 distinguished authority, Dr. Cohn of Breslau, estimates 

 that of one thousand cases of blindness only two hun- 

 dred twenty-five were unavoidable, while four hundred 

 forty-nine were possibly preventable, and three hundred 

 twenty-six were positively avoidable. As far as our eyes 

 are concerned, the old adage, "An ounce of prevention 

 is worth a pound of cure," is most true. Let us use 

 the full ounce of prevention, and thus avoid the un- 

 happiness and discomfort of the necessary cure. 



If all were born with perfectly formed eyes, the ounce 

 of prevention might be sufficient to keep these organs 

 healthy and useful servants for a lifetime. But all 

 do not have such good fortune. On a previous 

 page, we read that to have distinct vision, the rays 

 of light entering the eye must be brought to a focus 

 on the retina, as seen on page 237, Now some people 



