Prevention is Better Than Cure

Manawatu Times, Volume 63, Issue 106, 7 May 1938, Page 12

Prevention is Better Than Cure

If all people who wear spectacles were to walk on crutches just imagine I how deplorable the world would appear. It is due to the very fact that there are so many persons with abnormal eyes that anybody wearing glasses does not attract attention and we do not call him an invalid, yet it is an unnatural state of affairs that so many people need crutches before their eyes. Nature has almost invariably endowed us with a pair of sound eyes and it is our own fault if they are spoiled in early life. Much is being done to promote hygiene in all classes of humanity and at schools, too, in many parts of the world, the welfare of the young eyes of the children is being looked after. But if children spoil their eyes at homo by working under insufficient light it is of no avail if, for a few hours per day, they work at school under favourable conditions. In the interests of their children parents should pay more attention to the conditions under which they work and these parents should therefore know in the first place what may be demanded of a normal eye without harmful effect. The eye is an exceptionally sensitive instrument that reacts to every alteration of the light. For the greater part of our life we use our eyes iu normal daylight. It was thus in the past and it is still so, but besides this —especially during the last decade—we have been using our eyes under entirely dif- 1 ferent conditions—in artificial light. i Everybody knows that the power of 1 daylight and that of normal artificial ! light differ very considerably; but the ] greatness of this difference is really to i be seen only when the lighting intensity is expressed iu figures. This is i done scientifically by “foot candles,” the unit of lighting intensity. Well, whilst daylight outdoors has a power varying between 1,000 and 10,000 footcandles, light at night under a lanip has, on a;i average, a value of only foot-candles. Theso figures certainly give some idea of the enormous power of adaption of the human eye the sensitivity of which automatically increases in ■ weak light. However, there are limits to this and if the light becomes too weak for seeing comfortably, the eye is subjected to abnormal strain. If the eye is overstrained repeatedly it goes without saying that permanent damage to it is unavoidable. In this way it might happen that a the age of eight- a boy has to wear spectacles, making him look like an old man, because his young and still very sensitive eyes have been overstrained through bad light. A shortage of good light is responsible for the fact that there are so many invalids who requite crutches before their eyesl Good lighting begins with the purchase of good and powerful lamps. When selecting a first-class brand of lamp with the “Coiled-Coil” filament, there need be no fear of the abundant light being too expensive, for a lamp of such sterling quality is also an economical one. As with most otbor products we use, the best is cheapest in the long run.