WAR ON SPECTACLES.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 1412, 17 November 1904, Page 6

WAR ON SPECTACLES.

UtTLIST ON" HIS NKW CUtK I'IHI DKI-KCTIVK SIUUT. An entirely u<;\v mode of ihealine; various eye affections lias been discovered by a surgeon of n London hospital. It promises <.i haw vcrv far-reachine/ results. It is claimed that myopia, loutr sifvht, anil astigmatism, which form the ureal ImlU of eases, can now be cured without tin- aid of idasses, sin<] tin' results are said to hi- evncinll.v' Iwttor than when tin- patients have had glasses prescribed. Tlip' treatment, which is painless. consists merely of the "muiiipiilutioii of the eye-bail"' for a few minutes each (lay. l)r. Stephen Smith, stir jrcon of' lihe eye department of the l'.attersea Turk Hospital, to whom the credit of the new treatment belongs, came to the conclusion many months ago that it mioht l>.> possible to successfully treat eye diseases by this method, but the results he has achieved still continue to astound hmi. Some ISO patients have imdcre,oiic his treatment, and lie has had only three per cent, of failures. "Urielly and popularly, without eo inff into scientific technicalities,"' con tiuind Dr. Smith. "I may say that mv treatment consists in restorini: the eyeball to its proper shape. The eye defects couiine. under the headings of myopia (?ihorl sitditl. astiuuiatism (blurs and various errors of vision), and hypernietropia (loir.! siulit) are occasioned by various errois oi shape in the eyeball. My method is to manipulate the eye. and thus correct errors of shape. This operation is painless and harmless.

'"I shall no on us'uiiv (ho new treatment until 1 have dealt with a much larger number of cases, and then the staltikibs,. which I am carefully ownpilinij will be more instructive.

"There is no central reeistrv of eve defects, but 1 believe t.hat thousands of the pairs ol" .spectacles we see in the streets could be abolished."' Dr. .John Tweedv. of Moorficlds Kvc Hospital, stated recently that he had dealt with between 15(1,000 and IsO.000 patients in the course of his duties. The hospital has 115,000 new pat. ients every year.

Thi' recruiting returns for London for the past three years show that II per fciit. of llie rejected nii-n were refused on account.of defective eyesight. (If a largo number of board school children recently examined. 11l percent of those over lU years of aye had "exceedingly dclivtive \ i.-ion." Tbigivcs promise in the future of some WO.OOO paii's of spectacles in J-'nir-lnnd.