THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 7th AUGUST, 1930. CIVILISATION WRONGLY BLAMED.

Waipa Post, Volume 41, Issue 3185, 7 August 1930, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 7th AUGUST, 1930. CIVILISATION WRONGLY BLAMED.

THOSE of us who have to pepend on glasses for full eyesight are accustomed to blame civilisation. On the contrary, it begins to appear as if the afflicted 40 per cent could thank civilisation, without irony, for the ability to perform a thousand daily tasks that otherwise they would find themselves unable to discharge. Dr Herbert Marshutz, an optometrist, examined hunters and fighters of the Wakamba and Masai tribes, brought from the African jungles to Los Angeles to appear in motion pictures, and found that they shared the same defects of vision that are supposed to be a consequence of too much reading, artificial light, peering into microscopes, test tubes, and precision machinery. Greatly to his surprise, he discovered the identical defects so well known to him among his patients. Far-sighted-ness and astigmatism were common; yet these were men who couldn't read a line and in their daily life had no iluumination mpre trying than a camp fire. There was not one perfect eye among them. Undoubtedly, he believes or, rather, assumes that it seems reasonable to believe—the many close-range occupations of recent years have affected, or started to affect, our vision, but the structural defects that cause eye-strain and headaches must have been inherited from times before civilisation, for as far back as recorded history goes we find mention of eye trouble, and here the same defects appear in the eyes of those who do not even know what civilisation is. In other words, it appears a safe guess to blame defective vision on civilisation, but it is so far a guess only. The fact that more glasses are worn now than ever before does not signify that eyes are growing weaker, but that science has found ways of detecting and correcting inborn defects. Jungle eyes seem to need glasses for the same reason that ours do.