288 THE TREATMENT .OF DISEASES. 



as we say, in students, watch-makers, steel-plate engravers, .and others who for 

 many years have applied their eyes for many hours daily to fine work or literary 

 pursuits. Thus, myopia may be regarded as one of the evils of civilisation and high 

 mental culture. It is almost unknown in barbarous nations ; and it prevails chiefly 

 among the cultivated class, who in childhood and youth have spent many con- 

 secutive hours in close study. It is rare amongst the poor, and it is less common 

 in country districts than in large towns. It makes all the difference whether the 

 eyes are for years daily employed in looking at walls a few feet distant, or, as in the 

 country, at mountains and woods perhaps many miles off. It is said that with the 

 spread of education myopia is daily becoming more general. At one college in Oxford 

 32 out of 127 students were short-sighted, and in Germany it is excessively common. 



The treatment of near-sightedness consists in wearing concave lenses, either in 



the form of spectacles or double glasses. A concave glass is one that is hollowed 



out, or thinner at the centre than at the edges, thus : )(. A single eye-glass 

 should never be used. It is often necessary to have two pairs of spectacles or 

 eye-glasses, or one pair of spectacles and one pair of eye-glasses, the stronger pair 

 being for distant objects, and the weaker for ordinary reading. It must be re- 

 membered, too, that one eye is often far more short-sighted than the other, and in 

 that case it would not be right to have the two lenses in a pair of glasses of the 

 same strength. It is a matter of such importance to obtain glasses of proper 

 strength in these cases, that the spectacles should never be purchased at random of 

 a vendor or oculist in fact, no good optician would undertake the responsibility 

 of recommending a pair. The light thing is to go to an ophthalmic surgeon or to a 

 physician who has made the subject his study, and get him to go thoroughly into- 

 the case. For want of this little precaution many a sight has been hopelessly 

 ruined. No medicine will cure short sight, but there are certain general directions- 

 for myopic patients to which attention should be paid. In the first place, a stooping 

 position must be avoided, as it tends to cause congestion of the eyes. In reading, 

 the head should be well thrown back, and the book should be brought to the eyes, 

 and not the eyes to the book. It is a bad plan to read books printed in narrow- 

 double columns, for it is a great strain for the eye to travel from one short line to- 

 another. Reading whilst driving or in a railway carriage is also injiuious to- 

 short-sighted people. Reading by a flickering gas-jet is also very bad ; at night a 

 reading-lamp should be used with a shade which throws the light on the book and 

 leaves the rest of the room in darkness. When the eyes are tired and weary with 

 reading or writing, stop for a time, and do not begin again until they are rested. 

 If the eyes feel hot and irritable, lie down in a dimly-lighted room, and cover them 

 with a fold or two of lint which has been dipped in cold water. 



A recent writer, speaking of the prevalence of short sight in children, says : 

 " There is no doubt that deficient and improperly-admitted light in school-rooms is> 

 one cause of the rapid progress of this optical defect. To sit facing a light during 

 study, for instance, is extremely injurious to the best eyes. On looking up, the eye 

 becomes saturated with light, and then, on turning to the printed page, an effort 

 must be made to overcome the dazzling and clear up the vision. The light should 

 enter from above and at the side, so as to strike the page of the book, and not the- 



