THE LIGHT OF THE BODY.

Thames Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2839, 21 March 1878, Page 3

THE LIGHT OF THE BODY.

It is remarkable how much as delicate an organ as the human eye will bear. Its labors are never ceasing, being involuntary as well as voluntary, and embracing every extreme of light and darkness, sharing every extreme of heat and cold from which even the hardier portions of the body are carefully protected. The heat of summer we constantly face without extra protection to the eyes would blister the hand or foot, while the keen frosts of winter that only bring a remonstrating tear from the long suffering pupil, would put many an added chilblain and frost bite on feet, ears or nose. Like

all patient things, sentient or otherwise, this precious member haa mnoh, to bear from human iguorauee. Beginning with life and ending only when nature entirely rebels and sight leaves us entirely, we are in the habit of s) s-'ematically abusing what we ought to prize us the greatest blessing. It is claimed, by those who pretend to know, that a deal of injury is effected during the very niontha of school, when the child should be taught to distinguish the letters of the alphabet not from printed Hooks, often in very fine type, but from large models or blackboards. The Popular Science Monthly says that a faulty position in reading, writing, or studying, a prolonged looking at an object near the eye, even when a proper distance from it, using the oyes at too short a range, reading with the book in the shadow, while the light strikes on the eye, causing undue contraction of the pupil, allowing the sun to glare on the page, reading in railroad cars, insufficient light —are all fruitful sources of •permanent injury to the eyes, adding that, " even in the most favored homes, the elder group is apt to monopolize tho, shaded droplight or student lamps, while the school-boy, with his text books, is found somewhere in the outer circle." Thero is a great deal of truth in the last clause especially. It is not uufreguent to find the younger brother* and sisters of a large family as homeless in some respects as the veriest waif in the streets. Too young to be advanced to the dignity of separate bedrooms, and too old to meet with much consideration in the nursery, which is ruled with a rod of iron by the temporary king—baby—shoved aside by this one and pushed by that, always in somebody's way—a quiet corner, warm and well lighted, where he can study in comfort, is a matter seldom compassed; so we find' them very often, if they are ambitious, studying on the stairs, down in the kitchen with Bridget, or stowed away in a fireless room, sitting on alternate feet to keep them warm, while their heads and eyes are hot and burning. "Boy" can tell you a pitiful story very often; his weak eyes do not always result from skating too long in the wind or a cold caught sledding. Properly, children should never be compelled to study after lamplight, and, for that matter, no one who values that precious faculty of sight should do anything involving the slightest strain upon it by any artificial light whatever; the light itself being as much as any but exceptionally strong eyes should be called on io bear. Night time should be dedicated to conversation, music, games and all those pleasant employments that are calculated to give the most entire rest to the organs most used during the day; where this is not practicable, great care must be exercised in their constant use.—S. P. Post.