124 rUOCKKDINliS ()K TIIK ANATOMICAL AND AN THROI'OLOGICAL 



With regard to myopia Oliver states : ' "It is said to be unknown 

 among the Nubians, Laplanders and Patagonians, and is said not to 

 be seen among the peasant classes of Europe. In America it is often 

 seen among the advanced student types of negroes." Fuchs says : - 

 " Near sight is an attribute of culture ; fewer cases are found in the 

 country than in the city. In the new-born myopia is never found, 

 they are hypermetropic. In schools it is most common. The school 

 most dangerous is the high school. In Germany 20 per cent, are 

 myopic in the lowest standards, and (50 per cent, in the higher classes 

 of the higher schools. In the universities the conditions are more 

 unfavourable. Among lithographers 45 per cent, are myopic, among 

 compositors 51 per cent. Males and females are equally predisposed." 

 Colin states in five schools the percentage of myopes was 1'4, 26 "2 in 

 two gymnasiums, in the students of the University of Breslau 59 '5 pel- 

 cent. Callam in 1875 found in a negro school in New York, at ages 

 between five and nineteen, the percentage of myopes was 3, a per- 

 centage not so high as in the older civilisations of Europe. Norris and 

 Oliver give 3 some statistics on the percentage of myopes in American 

 universities. At Amherst College, Boston, in 1877 the proportion of 

 myopes in 1,800 students, between the ages of fifteen and twenty- four, 

 was 28 per cent., and at Howard College, in 122 students between the 

 same ages, 29 per cent. Seggel, in 1,000 soldiers in the Munich gar- 

 rison, found 4 "that among peasants 2 per cent, were short-sighted, 

 among day labourers and town dwellers 4 per cent, among artisans 

 and those engaged in trades 9 per cent., among merchants and writers 

 44 per cent., among those who had completed their studies at public 

 schools 65 per cent, had myopia ". 



The following table shows 5 the percentage of myopia in two groups 

 of 600 school children examined at Aberdeen and at Edinburgh. 



1 Norris and Oliver, System of Diseases of the Eye. 



2 B. Fuchs, Textbook of Ophthalmology. 



3 Norris and Oliver, System of Diseases of 'the Eye, vol. ii., p. 356. 



4 The Prevention of Disease, p. 734. Translation by W. Evans. 



5 Report of the Royal Commission on Physical Training (Scotland). 



