Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke.

  • Ernest Clarke
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Eyestrain (commonly called asthenopia) / by Ernest Clarke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    quent intervals of rest. It is the continuous close work that induces the fatigue. West, in speaking of the head- ache of children, says, I have frequently found it de- pendant on too continuous application, though the number of hours devoted to study in the course of the day may not have been by any means excessive.^ Faulty illumina- tion is a very great help in producing the strain, hence it is the evening work that should be specially avoided by those liable to suffer. All artificial lighting is more or less defective. It is hardly necessary to mention that reading in a railway carriage, generally very badly illumi- nated, is very pernicious. Those who have to work for their living cannot, as a rule, pick and choose as to the time they should use their accommodative powers, hence we find compositors, newspaper readers, seamstresses, machinists, workers at fine art needlework, or embroidery, and gold lace workers, all suffer more or less from eyestrain. Jewellers, watchmakers, and precious stone workers, mostly use a magnifying-glass called a watchmaker's glass, and thus save their ciliary muscle to some extent. The stooping position of the head that most close workers maintain causes congestion of the eyes, and renders them more liable to suffer from the strain. It is a matter of common observation that children ap- proach their eyes very closely to their work. This bad habit probably begins, through the little ones having to pore over the letters and words, when they are learning to read. Very often it is due to the faulty illumination of the schoolroom. Some time ago I was examining the eyesight of a class of girls, whose average age was eight years, in one of our London parish schools; with hardly an exception ' Lumleian Lectures, 1871.
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