594 - NEAR SIGHTEDNESS IN SCHOOL CHILDREN. 



ishing results in regard to the wide-spread prevalence of near sightedness 

 among such a class of persons. 



The object of this essay is to trace briefly the results of some observa- 

 tions made to test Prof. Donders' statement; secondly, to give a brief ac- 

 count of the causes of near sightedness and the remedies therefor as advo- 

 cated by others; and lastly, to present such opinions as 1 have formed in 

 regard to this disease of the human eye. 



These divisions, for convenience, will be discussed in the order enu- 

 merated. 



Two years after Prof. Donders made his statement, Dr. Cohn, of Bres- 

 lau, published the results of the examination of thirty-three schools, in- 

 cluding the university. The examination embraced 10,160 pupils, 1,004 of 

 whom were near sighted, and only 28 of them had near sighted parents. 

 Only one in twenty-five of the children the first half year in school was 

 found to be afflicted. The examination was confined to biennial grades 

 and extended over a period of fourteen years of school life. The longer 

 the pupils had been in attendance the greater the percentage of increase 

 and of those having been in the school fourteen years, 63.6 per cent, were 

 near sighted. 



Eecently Drs. Loring and Derby examined 2,265 pupils in the city 

 schools of New York. The proportion of natural shaped eyes among the 

 children between six and seven years of age was 87 per cent, and of those 

 twenty to twenty-one, 61 per cent. In St. Petersburg, pupils of tlie same 

 ages in school as the American children were found in the first class, 13.6 

 per cent., and 43 per cent, in the latter. The percentage in the Konigsberg 

 schools in the corresponding classes was 11.1 in the former and rising in 

 the latter to 62 per cent. 



In the college of the city of New York, 549 students were examined 

 and the following results reported : Introductory class, 29 per cent.; fresh- 

 men, 40; sophomore, 35; junior, 53; and senior, 37 per cent. 



An examination of 300 students in the Brooklyn Polytechnic School 

 showed 18 per cent, in the academic and 28 per cent, in the collegiate de- 

 partment. 



Tliere were 630 pupils examined in the Cincinnati public schools : In 

 the district schools ten per cent, were purblind ; in the intermediate grades 

 fourteen per cent.; and eighteen per cent, in the high and normal schools. 



Last Februar}', Dr. Lucien How was appointed to examine and report 

 on the public schools of Buflalo, which he did in the following March. Dr. 

 How examined the eyes of 1,003 pupils — 20 per cent, he reported short 

 sighted and 12 per cent, loiig sighted. No pupils six years old and under 

 had defective eyes ; but at seven he found 5 j^er cent, purblind ; at eleven, 

 11 per cent.; at thirteen, 19 per cent.; at eighteen, 26 per cent., and those 

 over twenty, 43 per cent. 



All of the conditions of this examination were carefully noted, and may 

 be classified under the following sub-divisiens : , 1. The precise condition 



