On the Safety of Your Eyes

Dr. Alfred Diab, head of the Eye, Ear, and Nose Department at the American University of Beirut, offers here, within the range of his specialty, a store of valuable information and advice on the safety of the eye.

The eye is among the most sensitive organs of the body — indeed the most important — and nature has endowed it with all manner of means to protect it from every harm. The bony frame that surrounds it forms an impregnable wall against bruising or concussion. The eyelids, together with the other parts of the eye, form a shield that protects the eye from wounds and shocks, except for blows aimed directly at the eye.

The intense sensitivity of the transparent layer covering the eye can detect the presence of foreign matter in the eye, such as dirt; the tears quickly flow to remove it and to wash the eye clean of it, and of other harmful dusts that carry infection.

In caring for your eyes, madam, do not forget to secure for them sufficient and suitable light. Shadow and glare tire the eye, and must be avoided as far as possible. There is a simple way of resting the eye: close it for a short while, or send your gaze to distant places; these will rest the nerves of the eye from constant, tiring staring.

If you wish to read, place the book you are reading level with your eyes in height. Tinted glasses may help you when you intend to stay long in the rays of the sun; but the habit of wearing dark-colored glasses is harmful, so beware of growing accustomed to them.

At the time of birth, it is easy for the newborn's eyes to be infected by the microbe that may find its way into the fluids that surrounded him in the womb. Severe infections may lead to blindness. You must therefore remove this possibility by putting into the child's eyes two drops of a protective solution that will give the eye immunity against infection.

And beware of exposing your child's eyes to strong light for a long time, and take care that your child does not play with sharp-edged toys with which he may hurt his eye or wound it.

Statistics have shown that ten percent of children new to school have affected eyes, and in most cases this defect has received no attention or treatment whatever. Since weakness of the eyes prevents the child from completing all his duties, we hold it a duty upon us to have the child's eyes examined at the proper age, and before he enters school; and then to treat the eye either with glasses or with medicine.

It may be among the duties of the school to provide every means necessary for admitting sufficient light without glare, by windows suitable in shape and in placement. It is fitting, too, to teach children the danger of putting dirty hands to the eyes.

The eyes are the student's greatest aid in his lessons, and the heavier the burden of these lessons grows, the greater grows the importance of examining the eyes more than once in the year; for an illness

or a weakness that escaped the doctor's diagnosis at the first examination may develop, under continual strain and late nights, into something whose end is not to be praised.

As a person advances in age, a change comes over his sight, caused by a natural development in the structure of the eye. In reading a book, it used to be enough to hold it, say, thirteen inches from your eyes; but that distance no longer suffices if your sight has grown short. The moment you notice anything of the kind, you must have your eyes and your body examined, for weakness of sight may be among the first symptoms of some illness, or of a bodily disorder which you can quickly forestall. And here are counsels of precaution which you would do well, madam, always to heed:

1 — Visit the doctor to have your eyes examined, and your child's eyes before he enters school and at intervals thereafter.

2 — Prompt treatment spares you the endurance of pains into which the eye's condition might otherwise have developed.

3 — Do not neglect to wear the glasses suited to your eyes, if the doctor has so advised you.

4 — Accustom yourself to healthy exercises for the eye, and give it periods of rest in reading, observing the conditions of proper light and avoiding the reading of small or unclear letters.

5 — Beware of letting your child play with sharp things harmful to his eyes.