Democratic Sentinel, Volume 8, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 March 1884 — Near-Sightedness. [ARTICLE]

Near-Sightedness.

Education may create discomforts as (Veil as secure great advantages. The Herman nation is threatened with a peculiar trouble of the eyeß, as a penalty for reading badly printed books and for unwise methods of study. A careful investigation of the schools by competent physioians has revealed the unpleasant fact that near-sightedness is growing common, and may become universal. In children of five years and under, it was rarely found; the vision was quite perfect. In the lower schools, from fifteen to twenty per cent, of the scholars were effected; in the higher schools, from forty to fifty per cent. In the theological department of the University, seventy per cent, of the students were troubled ; and in the medical department the misfortune was almost universal, only five per cent, not being thus afflicted. The physicians ascribe the difficulty to the practice of bolding the books too near the eyes, and the praotice is due in a large measure to the poor print of cheap books. The trouble is increasing in our own country, and it might be wise to have a similar examination of our own schools by skillful physioians, in order to call public attention to the ioum Press. A MANTiscniuT treatise by Copernicus has been discovered in the Stockholm dbseryatorv.