MYOPES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVIX, Issue 2875, 18 July 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

MYOPES.

Dr O. Sterling Ryeraon,' Professor of Ophthalmology in Trinity Medical College, Toronto, says : Myopia being essentially a condition due to abuse of tho eye, uno is constantly obliged to say '‘don’t" to patients, it occurs to mo that it might be useful to put these prohibitory rules in aphoristic form : 1. Don't road in railway trains or in vehicles in motion. 2. Don’t read lying down or in a constrained position. 3. Don’t read by firelight, moonlight, or twilight. 4. Don't read by a flickering gaslight or candlelight. 5. Don’t read books printed on thin paper. 0. Don’t read books which have no space between tho lines. 7. Don’t read for more than 50 minutes without stopping, whether the eyes are tired or not. 8. Don’t hold the reading close to the eyes. 9. Don’t study at night, but in tho morning, when you arc fresh. 10. Don’t select your own glasses at the outset. lb would almost seem as though some of these rules were too obvious to re* quire mention, but practical experience shows that myopes abuse their eyes just in the way stated. Reading by firelight or by moonlight are favourite sins. Reading lying down tends to increase the strain on tho accommodation, and while travelling tires the ciliary muscle because of tho Coo frequent adjustment of focus. In short, anything which tends to increase

the quantity of blood in the organ favours the increase of the defect, loading in extreme cases to detachment of the retina and blindness.—The Canada ia/icef.