Hints to students on the use of the eyes / by Edward Reynolds.

  • Edward Reynolds
Date:
1835
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Hints to students on the use of the eyes / by Edward Reynolds. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    64/68 (page 58)
    We have thus, in a very general manner, attempted to go over this important subject. We have endeavoured to explain the principles upon which the light under all1 circumstances is to be regulated, so as best to suit the labouring eye; to shew the periods of the day in which ti the organ may be used with the most advantage, and the- least danger of injury; and the amount of labour ton which it should be subjected, in its varying conditions inn different individuals. We have adverted also to its inse- parable connexions, and consequent sympathies with the>' general system ; and pointed out some of the important t rules necessarily arising from those connexions. Wee have alluded to some of the bad habits in which students t indulge, to the great injury of the eyes; and direetedu the attention to some of the plain simple means, prophy— lactic and remedial, which were naturally presented by\ the views that have been taken of the subject. If we mistake not, the secret but least suspected causes* of much of the suffering and privations of studious menr, from weakness of the eyes, may be found in the neglect'! of some of the above principles, or the indulgence of>; some of the above mentioned errors. It is obvious that the present occasion has only per--' mitted a very superficial examination of the subject. Its' vital importance to the cause of literature and religion! demands a more thorough investigation. But, perhaps1 enough has been said, to impress the mind with its impor- tance ; and to induce some who may read these pages, to give it the more accurate examination which it deserves, v nations,—the victims of these maladies, a sore-eyed, blinded race. The fact, however, is just the reverse; and we may therefore pro- perly acquit the Greek and Hebrew letters of any intrinsic malig-i nity. The truth seems to be, that any species of characters to which the eye is unaccustomed, and which therefore demand a closer attention than ordinary, tend in a greater or less degree to strain the eyes, and thus ultimately produce disease. Thus a page of Italic is read with much less facility than one in ordinary type; the eye must rest upon it with more intentness, and may thus be overstrained; in the same way that the eyes are strained by the exertion requisite in order to read at twilight—Ed. 58