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(4) Reading and Sewing.—The employment of the
glowing eye for near work is a most important factor. The
teaching of reading should be postponed to as late an age
as possible, and sewing should not as a rule be allowed under
the age of ten. Books should be well printed and the paper
unglazed. At present the School Medical Officer has little
opportunity of advising educational authorities on these
matters. If any progress is to be made in the prevention of
defective eyesight, the criticism of the Medical Officer should
be sought in the above-mentioned branches of the curriculum.
It is often stated that we are becoming a nation of
spectacled people. This phenomenon is more apparent than
real. Owing to the improved hygienic condition of the
masses, there would indeed be a lessened prevalence of defective
eyseight, were this decrease not largely discounted by
the universal literary education of the present day, with its
strain on the young eye.
A most important feature of the year has been the
initiation of a scheme for prescribing spectacles for school
children. This scheme does not rank as treatment in the
eyes of the Board of Education, and does not require their
sanction. The work is carried out by the Assistant School
Medical Officer during his spare time.
One of the empty rooms in the Public Health Department
has been fitted up as an examination room. In one
corner a small dark-room has been boarded up. This contains
an electric lamp, and can be used not only for the
examination of the eye but for use in the diagnosis of
diseases of the ear, nose and throat. In one corner of the
room are the test types for testing the acuteness of vision.
These are arranged on a revolving frame and illuminated by
a powerful lamp. A set of trial lenses, frames, etc., have
also been purchased.