View report page

82
a larger percentage of girls than boys suffered from defective
eyesight. This is probably due in some degree to the
functional stress incidental to the onset of puberty in girls,
but to a much larger extent to the strain entailed on the
eyesight by fine sewing. The prevention of defective eyesight
is a matter of some importance. The principal causes
are as follow :—
(1) Heredity.—This is of great importance in the condition
known as short sight, or myopia. Its influence is
probably of small import in the other and more numerous
varieties of the defect.
(2) Hygienic Conditions.—These, when bad, certainly
predispose a child to bad sight. There is no doubt that defects
of eyesight that would remain latent in a healthy child
soon assert themselves in a debilitated or badly-nourished
child.
(3) Illumination.—Defective lighting of schools, churches
and dwelling houses is an important contributory cause. The
child is forced to bring print close to its eyes in a bad light;
this leads to excessive convergence of the eyes and consequent
strain on the eyeball.
(4) Reading and Sewing.—The employment of the
growing 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