February, 191 



THE r.WnnEN AND FTFJ.D. 



429 



Home >Jotes. ® 



How to Take Care of 

 Children's Eyes. 



People constiuitly asume that near- 

 sightedness is a mater of comparative- 

 ly little moment, and is not a disease; 

 but I am convinced, writes a London 

 oculist, as the result of my observat- 

 ions, that fully eighty per cent, of the 

 near-sighted cases arc absolutely path- 

 ological, and should be treated as 

 such. • 



"So important is the care of the 

 children's eyes, both for their com- 

 fort when they are children and for 

 their well-being when they are grown 

 up. that, after their eyes have been 

 examined, they ought, in my opinion, 

 to be placed in classes according to 

 their vision. Thus, I should not have 

 a near-sighted child taught in the 

 same class-room with a child who is 

 not near-sighted, for the strain on the 

 eyes of the latter in looking at what is 

 written on, the blackboard necessitates 

 the use of stronger glasses than are 

 advisable. This question of the 

 blackboard brings me to a practical 

 point, namely, that it be so placed that_ 

 the light is not directed into the eyes 

 of the pupils: in other words, it should 

 not be placed on a wall directly opp- 

 osite the windows. Then the colour 

 of the rooms in which children are 

 educated and in which they liye con- 

 stantly is important. It is best that 

 the colour should be light, and red 

 should be climated both from the 

 paint and from the appointments as 

 much as possible — light buff, grey, or 

 yellow, being among the best, not 

 only for the eyes of children, but also 

 for grown-up people. 



"The care of the child's eyes, how- 

 ever, should begin long before it goes 

 to school, and many a mother, who is 

 kindness itself in everything else, sins 

 out of sheer ignorance in respect to 

 the care which she bestows, or rather 

 does not bestow, on the eyes of those 

 for whom she would literally go 

 through fire and water. 



"Headaches, for instance, are 

 amongst the most common complaints 

 of childhood, and yet how often are 

 headaches put down to everything but 

 the right cause. As soon as a child 

 complains of a headache, the mother, 

 if she deems it necessary to consult a 



doctor at all, sends for the ordinary 

 physician, or puts it down to some- 

 thing which has been eaten and has 

 disagreed with the child. Fully sev- 

 enty per cent, of the cases of head- 

 ache, however, from childliood up to 

 the age of nineteen or twenty, are due 

 to the eyes, and it is the eyes and not 

 the stomach or any other part of the 

 body which should be treated, if a cure 

 is to be effected. These headaches arc 

 caused by straining the eyes, and it is 

 remarkable how soon they go away, 

 never to return, when the proper 

 glasses have been given and have cur- 

 ed the deficiency which has been the 

 cause of the strain. 



"It is remarkable how the eyes res- 

 pond to attention. People who are in 

 the habit of living a great deal in the 

 open air, and using their eyes to see 

 things at a distance, like sailors, for 



instance, do not suffer to such 

 an extent from near-sightedness; and 



if a far-sighted child is constantly 

 kept at work and made to pore over 

 the opinions of many authorities on 

 liooks, it is quite poci'ble, according to 



the subject, that they will become near- 

 sighted. Still, far-sightedness, if it is 

 greatly in excess of what it ought to 

 be, should be treated by the use of 

 proper glasses just as near sight is, as 

 the muscle of accommodation, which 



we call the ciliary muscle, is strained to 



produce a proper focus for looking at 



near objects. 



"It is because of the constant strain 

 of this muscle that going out into the 

 open air is in itself so great a rest for 

 the eyes, for the strain of focussing is 

 taken off the muscle, and it is allowed 

 to rest quietly and easily. 



"Children who squint should be taken 

 at once to a specialist, for. by the aid 

 of glasses, this condition, caused by the 

 wrong action of the muscles which 

 move the eyeball, can be cured without 

 having recourse to an operation, which 

 used to be the only way of treating this 

 disease in the past. 



"Again, from a variety of causes 

 children's eyes become inflamed, and 

 this inflamation is constantly being 

 treated by parents who are quite ignor- 

 ant of the results which might occur 

 from their lack of knowledge. If we 

 remember how exceedingly delicate the 

 eye is, and how dependent we are on 



.111 ryrsinhi, not only for our comfort 

 1)111 fr)r obtaining our daily bread, it 

 seems terrible to think what chances 

 pe()i)lc take in treating their children's 

 eyes tlirnisclvcs, by such things as 

 bread-and-waler poultices, or poultices 

 of tea-leaves and other so-called simple 

 household remedies, in.stead of calling 

 in someone who is competent to do so 

 through having studied the subject 

 thoroughly. Indeed, there can be little 

 doubt that many people are to-day in 

 asylums for the blind who would never 

 have been deprived of their sight if 

 they had been regularly treated when 

 they were children." 



Bracken as a Food. 



Last month we quoted a case of suc- 

 cessfully substituting bracken shoots 

 for asparagus. An article on the sub- 

 appeared recently in the "American 

 Botanist" in which the bracken is very 

 highly commended as a nutritious arti- 

 cle of human diet. The principle 

 points to observe would seem to be to 

 select the tender stems of the bracken 

 from the time they appear above the 

 soil until the frond commences to un- 

 roll. Even then only the tender top 

 portions are selected before the tissues 

 become hardened and tough. Practi- 

 cally this applies to Asparagus and the 

 two would appear to have very much 

 in common when cooked. 



Certain people complain of a bitter- 

 ness in taste of these young stems, but 

 the Americans have discovered that the 

 bitterness is confined to the hairs cover- 

 ing the young stem and frond. The 

 frond itself would take too much 

 trouble in preparation and is th?refore 

 rejected. After suitable lengths of the 

 young stem have been selected a hnrd 

 brush is obtained and with that the 

 hairs on the stems are brushed off. 



To have a dish of ferns with white 

 sauce the stems are cut into pieces iin. 

 long and • boiled for forty minutes. 

 The water is poured off and a white 

 sauce prepared, and after seasoning 

 with butter, peper and salt, the Ferns 

 are served warm. Fern greens are 

 dealt with in the same way and cooked 

 •for forty or fifty minutes. The first 

 water is poured off and boiling water is 

 added, and the cooking continued for 

 ten minutes. These greens are then 

 eaten after seasoning to taste. Fern 

 salad has two eggs added, a piece of 

 butter about half the size of an egg, a 

 teaspoonful of mustard, some pepper 

 and salt, and a teacupful of vinegar. 



