Is the human eye changing its form under the influence of modern education? / Edward G. Loring.

  • Loring, Edward G. (Edward Greeley), 1837-1888
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Is the human eye changing its form under the influence of modern education? / Edward G. Loring. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    s the Human Eye gradually Changing its Form and Becoming Near-sighted under the Influ- ence of Modern Education ? Befoke answering this question, which is, in itself, one of le most important which conld interest those devoted to ocial Science,* since sight is the most intellectual, and there- jre the no])lest of all our faculties, it would, perhaps, be well 3r some of my hearers, who have not paid much attention to le details of anatomy and physiology, to define exactly what a ear-sighted eye is. This, fortunately, can be done in a few • ords. In an optical sense, the only essential difference in all eyes . a difference in length. The length cf a normal eye is almost sactly nine-tenths of an English inch ; longer than this would e a near-sighted eye, shorter than this a far-sighted eye. The uestion with which this paper begins might, then, be put in lis way: Is the human eye, under the influence of intellectual ursuits, gradually inci'easing in length % A direct answer to this question, and one which, indeed, has ;d to the present discussion of the subject, is found in Ribot's ite work on Heredity, in which it is afiirraed that since Mistant study creates myopia, and heredity most frequently erpetuates it, the number of short-sighted persons must neces- irily increase in a nation devoted to intellectual pursuits. ' If this be true, it amounts—since intellectual pursuits are irried on, in the more civilized nations, with an ever-increas- ig avidity, and are gradually extending themselves with an •resistible impulse into every corner of the globe—to saying * The following remarks were read in substance, originally, before the imerican Society of Social Science, Sept., 1877. They were afterwards ex- »nded and read in their present form before the County Medical Society of lew York, Nov. 5, 1877.