READING IN BED.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9550, 24 July 1909, Page 7

READING IN BED.

A German doctor has investigated the benefits and evils of reading in bed, and pronounced aeainst the ha"bit. The chief danger, he says, is to the eyes, partly because the light is frequently insufficient and shines into them, and partlv because it is difficult to hold the book so that both eyes can be used at once. 'lhere is also a temptation to hold the book too close to the eyes, which tends to bring on nearsightedness. However, both the English "Lancet" and the New York "Dietetic and Hygienic Gazet'e" uphold the habit, though ihty ctei.»' t 'riate it i" the young. The "Lar:ctt" points out that there are "many aeed, atxious, worried, and bed-ridden people to whom, for fear of possible injury to the eyesight, it would be cruel, to deny what might perhaps be their only luxury." The New York journal says light can be regulated to the recliner in bed in such a way as' to remove all danger to the eyesight. Electric light does away with the danger of fire, so that even if the reader drops off to sleep nothing more disastrous will follow than a slightly increased lighting bill. In the daytime the bed should be arranged so .that the light from the window falls over tne reader's shoulder; reading by diffused light is bad for the eyes. The young, unless ill or convalescent should not read in bed; the luxury shoud be reserved for the mature and the venerable. "And how beneficent a luxury it is: how comfortable for those in middle years; how positively a blessing for those in the afternoon and evening of life! Are there so many happinesses for those who have reached the summit and are travelling down the other side that they should be deprived of such a one as this—one so satisfying and so little injurious? The mellow light, the wondrous stillness of the bedtime hour, the soft pillows find the immaculate sheets, the clear large print of the luxurious volume —where i 3 there in the whole span of existence gratification approaching this; what more satisfying to the soul at such hours than to have Plutarch, or Milton, or Shakespeare extend across the centuries the firm and warm hand-grasp of a friend?" This is quite beautiful, but we would like to know how many people turn to Plutarch, or Milton, or Shakespeare in the midnight hour.