12 CITY LIFE VERSUS WILD LIFE. 



The powerful influence of the Great West upon 

 their national life and character is admitted by all 

 thoughtful Americans, and that it has been the school 

 which has nurtured and produced all that is best and 

 greatest in American character is a fact which few 

 people in the United States will be disposed to deny. 



On the other hand, the gathering together of a great 

 population within narrow limits, and the deadening 

 effects which city life produces upon individual character, 

 we canaot but think has had a greater influence upon 

 the history of mankind than is generally supposed: 

 for it paves the way to that decadence in the national 

 spirit which produces the decay, and eventual fall 

 of states; and at the same time it also blunts the 

 senses, and impairs the physique of the individual man 

 brought up under such conditions. 



We will take just one single point as an illustration 

 of this. We allude to the widespread prevalence of 

 "myopia" (short-sight) in the London Board Schools. 

 Now this is an all-important fact from a national point 

 of view ; namely that over 60 per cent of the children 

 attending the Public Elementary Schools of the British 

 Metropolis have defective vision. To speak with greater 

 accuracy, out of 8 1 25 children, whose eyes were examined 

 by order of The Education Department, only 3181 

 children of both sexes, or 39.15 per cent of the whole, 

 were possessed of normal vision of both eyes. On 

 this subject Mr. Brudenell Carter, the well-known 

 oculist, makes the following comments (necessarily 

 greatly abbreviated) in his report: 



" I feel certain that this (defective vision) must be attributed 

 chiefly, if not entirely, to the conditions of their lives and 

 surroundings. The visual power of London children is riot 



