directed immediately to the devoted to mere manual laparts and functions of his ma- bor."* terial organization. Pharmacy is but a small part of physic; medical cannot be separated from moral science without reciprocal and essential

mutilation.

a

The class of lives are devoted to mere mapersons whose nual labor, especially the more indigent part of them, are, to a certain extent, distinguished by the character of their disSuch observations are more cases, as well as that of their particularly apt to occur to other evils. They differ from one whose station of profes- the higher orders, less perhaps sional experience is established in the actual quantity, than in in the midst of an intellectual, the glaring and obtrusive color commercial, and voluptuous of their calamities. metropolis, the inhabitants of There is no person, perhaps, which exist in a state of more who is apt to form so low an exalted excitement and irrita- estimate of the value of human tive perturbation, than can be existence, as a medical man occasioned by the compara- practising among the poor, estively monotonous circum- pecially among the poor of stances of rural or provincial great city. But it is not imexistence. Over a still and possible that he may exagge waveless lake, a boat may move along steadily and securely, with scarcely any degree of skill or caution in the pilot who conducts it; whereas on the agitated and uncertain ocean, it requires an extraordinary degree of dexterity and science to insure the safety of the vessel, and the proper and regular direction of its destined course. "Thus the practice of medicine is reduced to a few simple rules, in the country, and in hospitals; but it is obliged to multiply, to vary, and to combine its resources, when applied to men of letters, to artists, and to all persons whose lives are not

rate the excess of their sufferings, by combining, as it is natural for him to do, their external state, with those feelings which he has acquired from very different circumstances and education. As the horrors of the grave affect only the living, so the miseries of poverty exist principally, perhaps, in the imagination of the affluent. The labor of the poor man relieves him at least from the burden of fashionable ennui: and the constant pressure of physical inconveniences, from the more elegant, but surely not less intolerable distresses

*Coup d'oeil sur les Revolutions, et sur le Reforme de la Medecine. P. J. G. Cubanis.

of a refined and romantic sen- by Mr Lawrence, one of the Surgeons sibility. Even those superior of St. Bartholomew's hospital, and of the Infirmary for Diseases of the intellectual advantages of eduEye. cation, to which the more opulent are almost exclusively admitted, may, in some cases, open only new avenues to sorrow. The mind, in proportion as it is expanded, exposes a larger surface to impression. Dr. J. Reid, of London.

ual who is myopic holds a book for reading, or any other thing he may wish to examine minutely, much nearer to the eye than others; he cannot distinguish the countenances of performers on the stage, nor the subject of a picture when placed a few feet above his head; he cannot read the inscriptions on doors or houses, nor recognize persons across the street; if he goes into a large room in which there are many persons, be cannot readily distinguish those he knows. The cause of this, I have already said, is the transparent media of the eye; probably there is an original difference in the configuration or in the density of these media, or in the condition of their surfaces. It may be a question whether this state of the eye depends on the habits of the individual. I am inclined to suppose that the habitual mode of applying the organ may have some influence. In persons of a literary and studious character, who employ their eyes much in reading or writing, and others who are constantly occupied on minute objects near the eyes, you may observe that the person is nearsighted.

members, 32 either wore spectacles or used handglasses. From these facts, together with the wellknown farsightedness of sailors and country people, we may infer that the habitual mode of employing the eyes has decided influeuce in rendering them myopic or presbyopic. Nearsightedness is not observed early in life; you never see persons trying to use glasses till towards the age of fourteen, or from this to eighteen. The defect may exist previously without being noticed, as such young subjects do not attend minutely to the state of their sight, or compare accurately their own vision with that of others. The only mode of remedying nearsightedness is the use of concave glasses; the defect is caused by too great a refractive power, and we must have recourse to artificial measures for lessening it.

Our object is

to enable the nearsighted to see dis-
tant things: the defect under which
they labor, does not interfere with
the vision of matters brought near to
the eye; indeed, the nearsighted en-
joy very distinct vision of near ob-
jects, and this circumstance has given
rise to the notion that their eyes are
very strong.
In order to select the
proper glass, the person must try
several, and choose that with which
he can see a distant object the best:
if this be accomplished without any
sense of painful or uneasy exertion
in the eye, the glass which will ena-
ble him to do so, is that which he
should choose. He will probably
find that with a glass rather more
concave, for instance, of the next
number to that which he has chosen,
he can see still more clearly, but
that after looking through it a short

"I remember once attending a sale of books at which I was struck with the number of persons wearing spectacles having counted them, I found that there were three and twenty gentlemen in the room, and that twelve of the number wore spectacles. Mr Ware took the trouble to inquire into the subject, and found, on consulting the surgeons of the different regiments of Guards in and about London, at that time amounting to 10,000, that nearsightedness was almost unknown among them-time, the eye feels strained and fanot six recruits rejected on this account in twenty years. He then made some comparative inquiries of the heads of the Colleges at Oxford and Cambridge, and found nearsight. edness very prevalent in all these institutions. In one particular instance, where the society consisted of 127

tigued: he should not allow the slight advantage in point of vision to induce him to expose the eye to an influence that will be very injurious. From the use, under proper precautions, of such concave glasses as will rectify the error in the refractive power of the eye, the nearsighted

person need not apprehend any injury to the eye: indeed, the easy exercise of vision with the requisite optical aid, seems to me less hurtful than the straining and efforts to do without them. As there seems to be some reason for concluding that the optical powers of the eye accommodate themselves to the circumstances under which vision is habitually exercised, I should recommend nearsighted persons not to wear spectacles constantly, but only to use them on occasions when they more particularly require such as sistance. When they have been worn for a considerable time, the person does not at first see so well on leaving them off as he did before; but this is only temporary. If spectacles be chosen in the manner I have described, and be worn only Occasionally, there is no fear of the eyes becoming more nearsighted, so as gradually to require deeper glasses. I have used nearsighted spectacles for twentyfive years, but my eyes are not more nearsighted than at first. The eye in the progress of age becomes presbyopic, and it might be supposed that this natural change in the organ would remedy the excess of refractive power in the nearsighted, and enable them to dispense with their concave glasses; but this is not the case, the nearsighted continue so in old age. Neither is there any ground for the notion that near sight is strong sight. The opposite state of the eye is presbyopia or tarsightedness-the former word being derived from presbus, an old man, because this state of the eye is observed in advancing age, and is most strongly marked in old persons. The eyes undergo certain changes in age, which have the effect of diminishing their refractive powers, so that the rays of light are not brought into their focus soon enough: the focus of such rays would be formed behind the retina. This is the opposite state to that which we have just been considering. Persons after fifty, and

sometimes before this age, generally find that they cannot distinguish near objects so well as they have been accustomed to do. They find it difficult to read small print or writing, to cut a pen or pencil, or to do anything that requires a clear near sight. Of course you are aware that the rays of light are more divergent the nearer the object is to the eye, and the further it is, the more do they approach to the parallel direction; consequently a greater refractive power is necessary in the former than in the latter case. Farsighted persons can see distant inscriptions, or distinguish the hour by a distant church clock, when they cannot read a common print held in their own hands, or see the figures and hands of a watch. This state of the organ must be remedied by the use of a convex glass, which, bringing together the divergent rays proceeding from near objects, remedies the deficient refractive powers of the eye. The glasses must be chosen under the same restrictions as I have mentioned in the former case, and must enable a person to see without straining or fatiguing the organ, and should only be worn for reading, writing, or the examination of near objects. This being a defective state of vision depending on age, it gradually increases, aud therefore requires a proportionate increase in the power of the glasses employed.

A preference is generally given to very clear glass, or what are termed pebbles; but on nervous subjects they often fatigue the eyes by an apparent stimulating effect on the optic nerve. Some oculists, therefore, prefer the glasses with a slight blue or green tinge. We have heard some nervous subjects complain of the glare of polished metallic frames, and others of an unpleasant sensation in the nerves of the face, and even of the teeth, which the use of metallic frames, either silver, gold, or copper produced. Having, in fact, experienced these effects from me.