APPENDIX A\ 



HOME CONDITIONS AND EYESIGHT. 



By Karl Pearson, F.R.S. 



It may not be without interest, in view of recent criticisms of 

 a memoir by Miss Barrington and myself-, to publish some further 

 determinations of the relation of home conditions to sight. 



Before doing so it will be well to point out one or two important 

 considerations which I think have considerable bearing on the manner 

 in which statistics ought to be collected, having regard to the medical 

 inspection of school children, which is now becoming universal. 



The first point I would insist upon is that careful distinction must 

 be made between (a) home environment and {d) school environment. 



Our paper dealt chiefly with the influence of home environment on 

 both refraction and acuity of vision. Now, as far as I am aware, the 

 only material hitherto available for testing the influence of the actual 

 /lome conditions on the presence of eye disease, on the goodness or 

 badness of vision, or on shortsightedness, is that provided by the 

 report of the Edinburgh Charity Organization Committee, where we 

 have for the first time the sociological report on the home conditions 

 placed alongside the ophthalmological report on the child's eyes, and 

 accompanied in each case by the age of the child. I do not see how 

 it is possible without such information to draw conclusions as to 

 whether the home conditions do or do not affect sight. I am quite 

 prepared to be shown that the conditions in Edinburgh are exceptional, 

 but the proof can only be given when the children who are reported 



^ Reprinted by kind permission from the British Medical Journal ^ July 



17. 1909- 



- Eugenics Laboratory Memoirs, v. "A First Study of Vision and of the 

 Relative Influence of Heredity and Environment on Sight." Dulau and Co. 

 1909. 



