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XIV. An Appendix to Mr. Ware's Paper on Vision. By Sir 

 Charles Blagden, F, R. S. 



Read February 4, 1813. 



jMr. Ware states in his Paper, that near sightedness comes 

 on most frequently at an early age ; that it is more common 

 in the higher than in the lower ranks of life ; and that parti- 

 cularly at the universities, and various colleges, a large pro- 

 portion of the students make use of concave glasses. All this 

 is exactly true, and to be accounted for by one single circum- 

 stance; namely, the habit of looking at near objects. Children 

 born with eyes which are capable of adjusting themselves to 

 the most distant objects, gradually lose that power soon after 

 they begin to read and write ; those who are most addicted to 

 study become near sighted more rapidly; and, if no means are 

 used to counteract the habit, their eyes at length lose irreco- 

 verably the faculty of being brought to the adjustment for 

 parallel rays. Of this I am myself an example, and as I re- 

 collect distinctly the progress, it may not be useless to record 

 it here. 



When I first learned to read, at the usual age of four or five 

 years, I could see most distinctly, across a wide church, the con- 

 tents of a table on which the Lord's Prayer, and the Belief, were 

 painted in suitably large letters. In a few years, that is, about 

 the ninth or tenth of my age, being much addicted to books, 

 I could no longer read what was painted on this table ; but 



