MAKING EYES RIGHT Great Progress In Recent Years

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29246, 2 July 1960, Page 10

MAKING EYES RIGHT Great Progress In Recent Years

‘ (Specially written for “The Press” by DAVID GUNSTONJ • J£VERY year more and more of us have to wear glasses. This trend is not new, but it is j increasing in almost all civilised countries of the J world, lu Britain random surveys have revealed that ’ 59 per cent, of the total population over the age of 15 • wear spectacles, either for constant or occasional use. This is in the proportion, roughly, of 64 women users to 52 men. ; Similar estimates hold good for many other countries, also, with considerably higher proportion of spectacle-wearers in the North American countries, also, with, considerably'higher proportions ’ Asiatic countries, though here the use of glasses is , expanding enormously.

Does this mean that over half the world is going blind, or that human vision is naturally deteriorating? Not at all. The reason 'for the rising use of glasses are several, not least of them being that for many folk they become ■second (or auxiliary) pairs of .eyes and are much easier to obtain .than formerly. Spectacles are aids •to vision that enable us to use ’our naturaheyes to the best advantage in a complex world; and there ds room for congratulation that [the handicaps of poor vision among people generally are'thus "being ever lessened. ■ Nevertheless, it is true that •natural vision is nowadays subl- - to far greater strains than, say, 200 years ago, though we also »iow know that nearly everybody }over the age of about 45. needs .glasses, for close work. With the "tendency for the over-all average [age of many of the world’s popuflations to continue to rise sharply, She number of those wearing spectacles is likely to increase for some time to come. , , What is remarkable, however, is the enormous'growth in recent [years of myopia, or short sight. Over 3,000,000 people in Britain •alone —one in every sixteen of the population—are short-sighted, according to opticians. Once upon a time, myopia (the inability to see objects clearly at a distance, •though they are clear close to) Jwlth its tendency to increase ■with age and eye use, was thought to be the worst of all the eye disadvantages man is heir to. Now, however, more and more Specialists believed shortsightedness could be an indication that our eyes are becoming more accustomed to our confined, hurried existence and are adjusting themselves to working in cramped Surroundings, artificial light and circumstances demanding close attention to print or small objects, life in office or factory, demanding close concentration, reading Newspapers in crowded, jolting trains and buses, relaxation before a small TV screen —these are factors which may well be affecting our eyes and making us more jnyopic than in the past. > Changing Habits • According to the British Association of Optical Practitioners. (‘The eye tends basically to be an butdoor instrument rather than line for use indoors. Our early ancestors, living , in wide open ppaces, needed good sight to patch their food and see their enemies if they were to survive. L “But whgn millions spgnd their day in an office doing closeup work and return home to spend their evenings watching television, myopia is no longer a cause for concern.” Perhaps, jhen, it is just as well that paradoxically enough “dim sight means eyes right,” "for short-sightedness is the one eye condition whose occurence far outstrips all others ! Nor is it tnie, as is commonly believed, that •women: have superior eyesight to men. Recent investigations have shown that men of all ages generally have better sight than women, and the higher proportion of women users of glasses bears this but. Women, incidentally, have slightly smaller eyeballs than those of men. The belief that children Normally have keener vision than their elders has also recently been proved a fallacy, too. It has been discovered that the human eye is not fully developed in all its potentialities until the age of around 25. . Another old enemy of the human eye, especially in elderly people, the cataract, is also being overcome by new techniques. Cataracts are cloudy growths Which partly or wholly cover the lens of the eye and so impair vision, and their removal by operation, though usually successful.

has always been a tricky business. Now, a new enzyme compound has been produced which safely softens and weakens the muscular bands that hold the eye •lens in place. With the use of this substance, the lens is then steadily disengaged from a membrane, permitting the harmful cataract to be easily lifted out and removed. There have been marked improvements recently,, too, in the organisation and use of “eye banks,” ■. which collect and. preserve healthy corneal tissue from human eyes for later use in grafting operations designed to restore sight to those blinded by disease or Occident. Such corneas may come frorif the bodied , of dead persons who have specifically bequeathed them for the purpose, from stillborn infants and from live, patients whose eyes have to be removed through injury or illness but in which the corneas are nevertheless healthy and unimpaired. Hitherto, such cor. neas could be preserved in a saline solution for only 72 hours; after which they greyed over and became useless. Now, thanks to a method discovered by the eye clinic at Debrecen, in Hungary, corneal tissue can be safely kept for two months, and probably much longer. The eyes are placed in a jar and immediately frozen to minus 80 degrees centigrade. All air and humidity is removed from the jar, so that the living tissue is kept in a dry vacuum. When it is wanted for use, the seal is broken and the eye placed in a special saline solution at a temperature or 37 degrees centigrade. In 30 minutes the cornea is said to be as fresh as just removed from a living person. Portions of such corneal tissue may be • removed by circular knife and used as a graft for blind people with damaged or greyed-over corneas. Already, many thousands of blind or bliqded people have been enabled to see again by eye banks using the old short-term method of corneal preservation, and this new development holds out increased hope for many more. It promises to be a major contribution towards; the fight against human blindness ' Artificial Eyes , For those who have the misfortune to loose an eye, too, there are vastly improved artificial, or “glass” eyes. Quite apart from improving personal appearance, these add to the wearer’s comfort and allow tears and eye secretions to flow through natural channels. Artificial eyes of a crude kind have been known since the sth century B.C. and since then as eathenware, silver, gold, ivory, horn, vulcanite, porcelain, Aluminium glass. Glass eyes held the itefa for a long time “aS * ; 'a ' German specialty, but during the last war other nations had to prodqqe their own and began ejmerihjenting with plastic eyes. Now has been perfected ’the:, model artificial eye of modern acrylic plastic, comfortable to wear, unbreakable, inexpensive and uncannily like the real thing. All these scientific aids to better sight or aided sight mark a forward march in the art of seeing. Good eyesight is a blessing all too readily taken for granted until weakness, impaired or loss of vision come as' a grim reminder of the inescapable fact that human eyes, like their owners, are not perfect Wonderful pieces of mechanism though they are, our eyes are highly susceptible to strain, weakness, injury or disease. Enormous strides have taken place in the science of opthalurology, not only in the present century but in the past decade. Very many eye problems or weaknesses are nowadays capable of alleviation or cure.