SHORT SIGHT IN SCHOOLS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2361, 31 July 1886, Page 1 (Supplement)

SHORT SIGHT IN SCHOOLS.

'This "'as the title of a lecture delivered by Dr Fergnsson to a; large audience nt the nu-olityj; of the Ikliicational Institute, and published in the Dunedin Star. 21m lecturer," at'the outset, referred to this commonness of myopia or short-sightedness, which ho said caused from 10 'to 12 pei- cent, of the cases of'blindness ■ With children myopia'was a more serio.is matter than ; with adults,, for, it) coiisfif|'u'ence : of the stooping resOlting from it, there was a predisposition' to chest • ciimp'aints, Many cases of consumption were duo to short sight. That might seem a very startling statement to make, but there was no doubtah'out it. Having spoken of the seriousness of short, sight, Dr Fertjusson explained to what it was due, illustrating his moaning by models and diagrams.' Very small differences in the size of eyes piade a '. very great the. power of vision; For instance, the ctilluiVnce of our twenty-fifth of an inoh made the i difference between a person, who, could ■ see'perfectly distinctly at a distance • and a'person that could see nothing; i distinctly that was more than ten i inches away. This simply meant that, 1 a short-sighted child could not see tli n 1 black-board; had (if bum..with,..uiaL

foi'inntion) never seen , the trees, the birds, or the sky distinctly, and could see tlie sun and moon and not the stars, 'l'liih sometimes could not lie 'helped ; they might be burn with the eye too long in the access, but, it \Hv, vare; in such a case it was a matter of malformation. . It was very rare to find this in infants, and some of the latest statistics of Dr Kohn, a Gornmn bcculist, gavean account of 110 children examined und>>r throe months old, all of whom wej'e fou'nd'tb he long-sigh'ted.' It was not ro vara when they were .growing up, and we therefore found with the majority of short sighted children it whs not hereditary h.iii acqiii.ed:And what was more \?e found (hat they rarely became short-sighted unless they used their eyes to a consider-, able extent. Myopia .was rare in savage raced People who lived out of-door lives mid who were not educated enjoyed the same immunity: .'.-In civilised races it 'increased, directly in proportion to the civilization, ami it resolved itself in direct proportion to the civilisation, and it resolved itself into exact proportion -with the amount of education children' meant the amount that involved close work for the eyes. In schools and colleges it had been observed that the amount of short sight was in direot proportion to the work children had to do, and in relation.to the grade of the school and their class in that school, For instanco, recent German statistics showed that the average of short sight

in schools was 14 per cent, but coming to the universities it increased to 59 per cent—a difference that was enormous. It was also found in tabulating these stustics that myopia increased from the lowest to the highest class. In the lowest class it averaged 15.8 per cent, and in the highest 55,8 per cent. Children who went in the lowest .-school class with healthy eyes, came out for their university career shortsighted, The average degree, of short-

sightedness increased as wtll as the-per centago. So it followed that, not (inly were a number of long-sighted' people becoming short-sighted,' but' a number ot'iihnn-sinhted people were becoming worse; and t-:-is {■■■ m iif progressive inyoj.i.i was what -,vs *■• i ery (lungerbus in \>A\<r-M Vv- hm ■.', Iv.k round

l'i»r ■ lln- i.'iu-r i.i' i i the .main -'.MM a' '.Hi lli-H- eliihlivii h- I'i >hin»s 100 .|..,!! |i< i 11..), ey.-s, iii|.| ii-|U) l|),, nnich coiisl.mih . ■ : .i- ii •v ~ i,) |iy„| ( at niq.-ei- •iij.j.nsiiii: ih-il, a child had uii'u eer ni fruiii of ihe ere nntl theoigaii, lie'.'aiue iletefidiHteil. The child hud ii HimVulty inu, anil in ordei in "eta biriier iinaffe ciiiiS'a'ntlv brought objects closer to the eye, lie was very familiar with eases of short Sight iir which the cornea had been injured by inflammation, and when told the child's eyesight wis always -good till it had the measles or whooping cough, could readily understand that it

was perfectly Line. The lecturer then explrtineclthe-musculo' action used to turn tlit! eyes inwuid to aurvoy k close object, This effect was more constant in cases..of short sight than with a healthy .eye, awl the; aotiou of the muscles upon a badly ahapel eye, was ' a constant squeezing of the aides, i When there wns loss of equilibrium of ' the nmsuhs, the ma*e of affairs was .' very much aggravated. The lecturer ; proceeded to account for the statistics ■ of myopia being so mueh higher in , Germany than in England on the grouml of the far larger school curricn in in ■ the pupils were required lo undergo, fte was sorry to have been quite unable, to get any.New Zealand statistics; hut quoting from his own professional experience, out of the first 1,000 eyes he had examined 233 were myoptic—very nearly one in four, In addition to this nine wwe blind from whatjwas nailed detachment of the retina, which was {jonernlly due to short sight, if not to accident, Of this nine, seven might be added as short sighted eyes. Out of the 1,000 that ho examined he marked H s probably nonprogressive short sight 117, and'probably progressive short sight 41, and oases which he knew to be progressive 27. That meant seventy people in (he 1,000, and who were »oincr mi any alter day getting blinder, and he should be sorry to think it represented the

proportion of ihe population at lnr"i\ Dr Furguson then explain*.! the processes hy which short sight led to diseases, saying that when it increased to any extent it almost "iiaiantew! that the back of the eye was not noimd. Tlio main cause of myopia in schools was looking too closely at hooks, etc, and this was to he accounted for on several ground, The reflection of the;

eye might bo worse in the tir'st place.; I the child might have inNisHy long sight., and therefore get a blurred image. The second reason was diminished sharpness of sight—if a child had an ulcer on the cornea he would not see (jistjiiotly, , and-would imturallv bring the book closer, The third reason was illumination— everyone was aware that nothing made a person hring an object close, to his eyes quicker than a dim light, The' fifth raison ; for the prevalence of short sight in schools was the method of writing; the sixth, thn construction of desks and bencbaj; and ihe seventh the oijstomary position'of thn child. Tli? refractionnt light' could' 'lie corrected by giving suitii hie glasses.. In the second case they could treat opaqueness of the. corner-.or improve the sharpness i of vision.' As to t'he'iliird reason,' there ';, was a good deal to be said about : illumination, It was essential to get ji good-lighten this island, that the

principal windows should be north- i east or north, In Canterbury probably the -northern aspect would'be'too hot i in summer, but anywhero in New' j Zealand the southern would bo too' dark and cold, and the principal win-' i (lows should on no account look south; The north-Cast aspect 1 would probably do all over Whw Zealand. Again, the light from above was always best, but' this was often impossible to pht.iini' Every scholar from liisise'at; sl|oul.l be. ; able to see'some parf "oTthe sky, and, for this it was necessary that the windows should not be tuo elo: o to another house,. Tito angle, therefore, to .the i J'j.dge o'f.the.nearest roof should not be more than 20dng or 25deg, The height of the top of the window from' the floor miist be two.thirds of the width of ,the rotori-/:\-.W'o.shduid not have laroom with large windows low down. The bottom should not be less than 3ft to 3ft 6in from the floor. The light should'-come from ahove upon the paper Mid if the windows were low down it merely.came up and .glared into the cli'iiclV J; Tn'<J-''main', 'light, too, must come from the left side, and light might come in from the back to supplement it. Light from the front was q'uite inadmissible, By the arrangement laid down there would be no shadow of the band on the paper in writing. With gas,-evory burner should have a chimney, and there should be one burner to about every four children. The printing in books should be large, aiid good, and the paper of good quality. He knew school hooks at Home of logarithms, etc., containing print and paper which should be prohibited by law. They did more barm than anyone was aware .of. '[ He washed to suggest, also, that blackboard teaching should be carried much further than at. present—there' was no reason why children shoulduot be taught to read without ever, taking a book m hand, As to position, the children should sit with shoulders and pelvis pvallel to the edge of the desk, If a child sat straight/with the base of the eyes parallel-to the edgo of the desk, he must write straight up ami down-he; could not do otherwise—and it was wicked and cruel to shake a child up to make him sit straight and write, sloping, The paper could be placed obliquely, and then it might be' done ■in such a position. 1 ines" were, very trying to a child, and except the headline they should be abolished in-all copybooks. Desks and benches.shouhl be constructed of varying sizes-and heights for children of different sizes, footboards should bo provided, etc., and the lecturer designated the exact dimensiens necessary to be observed

in these respects. These things might sound.trivial; but they were really of great importance, arid'liHd formed' the subject of several royal commissions in Germany and one or two at home. A very distinguished German oculist had, in connection with -the prevalence of myopia,, demanded the- following things- the German type should be abolished, which would mean the reprinting of the whole of the extensive German literature; that all lines exceptjieaillines ho kept out of copy-

books ; the abolition of slate and pencil in laviir of paper and lead; instruction by means of the blackboard; the teaching of reading before writing; and the abolition of tine needlework in schools. r He proceeded to speak regarding school age, and expressed an

opinion that no child should he sent to school before ho had attained the agp of never) yeav-s—(applause)—and that there was urgent necessity for a medical inspection of all schools.- There should be an annual examination of the eyeu of all the scholars,—(Laughter and applause). That would, he believed, before long be compulsory in England, and he hoped to see the colonies not far behind in the matter. Children should not be allowed to suffer great torture during their school life, when it could be prevented in a great measure by medical examination, Since be came out here he had heard a great deal about the system of education to the effect that it was taking away their working classes and filling their towns with clerks; but with that he had nothing to do, There was one thing, however, he might say in the interests of.the.childrea of the colony, and that was that any 3ystem of education which did nnt provirlp some.such safeguards as h'.f had indicated for the protection of the eyes of the pupils would be laying the foundation of blind asylums for the next generation,— (Loud applause.)