Abuse of the Muscles of Baby Eyes.

Evening Star, Issue 6802, 6 January 1886, Page 3

Abuse of the Muscles of Baby Eyes.

The two muscles—a set for each eye—act in perfect correlation, and enable the organ in an instant of time to cover an infinite range of vision. No fine adjustment of the telescope, no system of lenses and prisms, can accomplish this feat in an instant of time. The utmost caution is therefore imperatively demanded of every person to whom is consigned the care of the young child from infancy to perhaps the third year of life. It is during this time that damage to tho muscular apparatus of the eye may be done. The mother or nurse is eager to have baby see everything from the nursery window or from a carriage or car. How many tired heads, languid eyes, and disordered tempers result from this mistake ! How often is loss of accommodative power, or enlarged pupil, or cross-eye the consequence ! Worms, " inward fits," sour stomachs, flea-bites, and bad tempers are some of the morbid and moral posers which the mother and family doctor ponder over. An indication of the delicate and undeveloped muscular apparatus of the eyeball within the first two months of life is found in the ease with which some infants look cross-eyed. It is well known that in sleep tho eyes are turned upwards under the brows, and inwards, and that a true crossed condition of the optical axes occurs during this state.

A occasional temporary crossing of the eyes of an infant above two months of age should be carefully investigated. The child should be handled lightly -, it should not be played with too much; it ought to He or roll on its back in preference to sitting on the lap or in a chair. Any unequal size of the pupils should be carefully noted. It may be either the sign of some internal trouble or a simple local affection of the muscular tissue controlling the pupil.—Dr E. S. Peck in " Babyhood.