M 



precious still, echoing in his ears, while his muscles were beirig 

 braced by exercise and his lungs refreshed with pure air, and all 

 without injury to his eyes. The deterioration of the eye-sight in 

 quite recent times is becoming a serious and very pressing con- 

 sideration. In Germany, where the masses are certainly better 

 educated than with us, nearly thirty per cent, of the labouring 

 class have to wear glasses, while in the higher ranks no less than 

 fifty per cent, have defective sight. In England too the per centage 

 of persons with weak and defective vision is steadily and rapidly 

 increasing. Various means have been proposed with a view to 

 saving the eyes as much as possible, and books have been already 

 printed in dark blue print on a greenish or neutral paper, or black 

 on a buff ground, with this object, but all such devices appeaj 

 trivial when compared with the saving which might be affected by 

 means of the Reading Machine. 



The time at my disposal will not permit me to continue my 

 enumeration, but I hope I have said enough to show you that the 

 past year has not been altogether unproductive of interesting 

 scientific work 



In the course of a short discussion which followed, 



Dr. Tyson referred to that portion of the President's address 

 relating to sight. He said it was interesting to know that a great 

 many more people were wearing spectacles now. They must re- 

 member that the science of testing the eyesight had only very lately 

 come into vogue. He often thought that boys at school many 

 years ago were punished very often for not seeing things on the 

 black board, whereas it was now generally acknowledged that their 

 sight was defective. They knew now that the use of simple glasses 

 early in life would remedy that defect, although they must admit 

 that eyesight was gradually getting weaker. 



Mr. Walton asked if that could be explained, when it was well 

 known that the average duration of life had increased during lat^ 

 years. 



The President said there was no doubt that sanitary improve- 

 ments and a better knowledge of hygienic laws had caused the 

 diminution in the death rate. He thought it was to be expected 

 that both sight and hearing would be less acute owing to the higher 

 state of civilisation in which we lived. There was such a thing as 

 evolution, and as organs were exercised so they improved. People 

 living in a more natural kind of life maintained their faculties of 

 sight and hearing to a much greater extent than they do now, when 

 they were living a much more artificial life than formerly. 



With reference to over eating, Mr. Walton asked the President 

 if he did not refer more especially to the consuriiptioii of animal 

 food. 



