EYE TROUBLES

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 20011, 14 February 1914, Page 2

EYE TROUBLES.

SCHOOL GIRLS' PERILS

SEVERE CONDEMNATION

At the meeting in the ophthalmology section, a. paper was read by Dr. Lindo Ferguson, of Dunedin, on "An Undescribed Jupillary," and in the course of discussion on the causes and origins of eye disorders in women, one of the speakers—a. doctor whose word carries considerable weight—incidentally, but seriously, spoke a word of warning about the imposition of heavy mental and eye strain on young women by the demands of our general education system, with the addition of music examinations. "I want to say again," said the doctor, ''what I have on several occasions said before: that while the strain of our educational system on growing girls does great harm to many of them, the additional strain of preparation for mnsioal examinations is disastrous in its results, and should not be permitted." A most interest paper was submitted by Dr. Harvey Sutton, of Melbourne, on the important question of "Rickets in Home Life." The writer's conclusion, after the examination of many school children was that a large number were wpedy and showed signs of rickets. Upon investigating the cases, he came to the decision that they were due to improper feeding in infancy. The doctor stated he found that those who had been breastfed for nine or ten months practically remained healthy and strong in after life. Those, however, who were breastfed for only three 'months, showed a large percentage of rickets. This, he explained, was due to the fact that in the case of infants breast-fed for the shorter period, the mothers generally used some "proprietary food. Bottle-fed babies also suffered from rickets the exception to these ebing when infants who baiL never been breast-fed had received food under medical advice and that consisted of some form of cow's milk.