298 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
the eyes tend to become fuller; the focus of the eyes is shortened by 
a muscular effort which alters the form of the crystalline lens; the 
visual axes, which in distant vision are nearly parallel, are held in a 
position of convergence, and if the work be reading they are also 
moved continuously from side to side. It is near work, therefore, that 
makes the greatest demand upon the eyes, and the nearer the work 
the greater the strain. Moreover, it is chiefly in near work that con- 
tinuous mental effort is required. 
Children who do too much close eye-work suffer in various ways. 
Some simply from fatigue, showing itself by inattention, mental 
weariness, temporary dimness of sight, or aching of the eyes and head. 
Some from congestion of the eyes, as shown by redness, watering, 
and frequent blinking. A certain number, in circumstances. which 
predispose them to the disorder, develop strabismus, or squint. Some 
others—and these cases are perhaps the most important of all—develop 
progressive myopia. 
Myopia, or short sight, commonly depends on undue elongation of 
the eyeball. It is never, or hardly ever, present at birth. It is rare 
at five years of age. It usually begins during school life, and increases 
more or less from year to year during the period of growth. It some- 
times continues to increase after growth is completed. It is not 
necessarily, or always, associated with over-use of the eyes, either in 
school or elsewhere, for we see it arise after illness, we meet with it 
in illiterates, and we know that the predisposition to it is strongly 
hereditary. But it is everywhere most frequent among the most 
studious, and there is a mass of evidence to show that it depends very 
largely, both in its origin and in its progress, on over-use of the eyes 
in near work. 
A moderate myopia which does not increase may be regarded as an 
innocent, though somewhat inconvenient, over-development of the ¢ ye. 
A high myopia usually involves serious stretching and thinning of the 
coats of the eye, and a liability to further trouble. A high myopia in 
a child is a very grave condition, for further deterioration always 
follows. In connection with myopia alone, to say nothing of other 
eye defects, the question of school-work in relation to eyesight deserves 
more attention than it has hitherto received. 
The subject has many sides: the lighting of school-rooms, the 
arrangement of the desks, the design and proportion of individual desks, 
the attitudes of the scholars, the amount of work required, are all 
factors of importance; but they cannot be considered here. Our 
present effort is directed to the standardising of school-books, a very 
important step in the desired direction. 
Small print leads the young scholar to look too closely at his book. 
He is not yet familiar with the forms of the words, and his eyesight 
has not yet reached its full acuteness. For easy vision he must have 
retinal images larger than those which satisfy the trained reader. To 
obtain these larger images he brings the book too near to his eyes, or 
his eyes too near the book, and this, for the reasons already given, 
is apt to be injurious. Hence the importance of establishing certain 
standards of legibility for school-books, haying regard to the ages of 
