GOOD EYES AND FREE SCHOOLS. 443 
For statistics of foreign schools I copy from Dr. E. G. Loring’s pamphlet, 
“<Ts the Human Eye Changing its Form under the Influence of Modern Educa- 
tion,” New York, 1878. 
Let us now turn to the researches in schools of the United States. Cincin- 
nati, 630 students examined: District schools, near-sighted 10 per cent.; inter- 
mediate, 14 per cent.; normal and high, 16 per cent. Brooklyn Polytechnic, 
300 students: Academic department, 1o per cent.; collegiate, 28 per cent. 
Buffalo Public Schools, 1,003 pupils: The percentage of near-sightedness in- 
creased from 5 per cent. at seven years of age, to 26 per cent. at eighteen years. 
It was further ascertained that one of every four graduates of the Buffalo high 
school was near-sighted. In New York a careful and exact examination of 2,265 
pupils by Drs. Derby and Loring showed the existence of near-sightedness of 3.5 
per cent. in children from six to seven years of age, with an increase of 26.78 
per cent. in students from twenty to twenty-one years of age, an increase of over 
seven-fold. At Dayton an examination of 765 pupils gave the following results: 
Myopia in the district schools, 15.35 per cent.; in the intermediate, 17.65 per 
cent.; in the high schools, 18.32 per cent. 
For statistics of schools of this country, I am indebted to Dr. W. J. Conk- 
lin’s pamphlet entitled, ‘‘ The Influence of School Life upon the Eye-Sight with 
Special Reference to the Public Schools of Dayton.” 
From the above statistical facts we learn that we are following fast the ex- 
ample of the ‘‘ effete cities of the old world”(?) in our success in impairing the 
visual apparatus of our children, and we only lack time and more constancy of 
habit on on the part of our. people, so that the laws of heredity may implant this 
visual deformity, permanently, into the race. Let us now inquire where there is 
aremedy for this forboding evil. Most writers on this subject have attributed 
this loss of vision to the following causes: Defective illumination of school 
buildings ; uncomfortable and faultily constructed seats ; insufficient nourishment 
and the vitiated atmosphere of the school room; too many studies and continu- 
ous attention to books. I am free to confess that these faults are auxiliary causes 
of near-sightedness; but they do not form the ground work of the malady. In 
this country, the buildings are generally well lighted, and the seats of the school 
room have been manufactured with due regard to the comfort and health of the 
pupils. Nor can we admit that the children are not sufficiently fed. As to the 
number of studies, these, generally, come at an age when near-sightedness could 
not be easily produced, when it either already exists to a considerable extent, or 
will not be developed, but can be intensified, if existing. We believe the cause 
of myopia to be the convergence and accommodation of the eye for small print. 
It is true that the eye of a child is a perfect optical instrument and has the 
greatest functional activity, but this very perfectness is a something that ought 
to be held in reserve. The constant strain on the eye for convergence compresses 
its coats,impairs its nutrition,weakens the resistance of the sclerotic until its spher 
icity is changed, and gives place to an elongated axisand myopia. The remedy, 
