ae ae 
Ol ie he eee 
ON THE INFLUENCE OF SCHOOL-BOOKS UPON EYESIGHT. 271 
compulsory subject for the Board of Education 
examination of training-college students. 
We learn that it is not customary for teachers 
to give the children special instruction concerning 
the care of their eyes. It is stated in several 
instances that teaching of this kind is given 
incidentally in the course of the lessons on hygiene 
which form part of the school curriculum; but 
nothing more is done, and what is done amounts 
to very little. 
Speaking generally, no definite principles or 
rules as to printing and other conditions of legibility 
have been adopted in the selection of school-books, 
atlases, diagrams, &c. Two or three Authorities, 
when drawing up their book-lists, have given 
considerable attention to their possible effects on 
eyesight, but without formulating any definite 
rules. Several state that the committee or officers 
responsible for the supervision of the book-supply 
pay attention to the type, paper, &c.; several, on 
the other hand, inform us that the selection of 
books, &c., is left to the teachers. 
Summarising the evidence generally, it may 
be said that whilst effective arrangements for 
the detection of existing defects in the eyesight 
of elementary school children are general and 
arrangements for the supply of proper spectacles 
at cheap rates are not uncommon, practically no 
systematic attention is given to the influence of 
school-books upon eyesight. 
The replies lead us to believe that the report 
of the Committee will have attention from Local 
Education Authorities. 
Report of the Oculist Sub-Committee. 
The eye of the child isa growing eye. It is 
immature both in structure and in function. At 
