d fall upon the desk from the left
hand side. My attention has repeatedly been called to the cross lights
in a school room. The light falling directly into the eyes contracts
the pupil which is already contracted by the action of the muscle of
accommodation in its effort to give a clearer picture to the brain.
This has a tendency to elongate the eyeball, and as a permanent result
we have near sightedness. Where the eyeball has an unnatural shortness
this same action manifests itself by headaches, chorea, nausea,
dyspepsia, and ultimately a prematurely breaking down of health. The
first symptom of failing sight is a hyper-secretion of tears, burning
of the eyelids, loss of eyelashes, and congestion either of the
eyelids or the eyeball proper.

The natural condition of aboriginal man is far sighted. His wild life,
his nomadic nature, his seeking for game, his watching for enemies,
his abstention from continued near work, have given him this
protection. Humboldt speaks of the wonderful distant vision of the
South American Indians; another traveler in Russia of the power of
vision one of his guides possessed, who could see the rings of Saturn.
My recent examinations among Indian children of both sexes also
confirm this. While the comparison is not quite admissible, yet the
recent investigations carried on by Lang and Barrett, who examined the
eyes of certain mammalia, found that the larger number were
hypermetropic or far sighted. With all the difficulties which
naturally surround such an examination they found that in fifty-two
eyes of rabbits, thirty-six were hypermetropic and astigmatic, eight
were hypermetropic only, five were myopic and astigmatic, and others
presented mixed astigmatism. In the eyes of the guinea pig about the
same proportion of hypermetropia existed. The eyes of five rats
examined gave the following result: Some were far sighted, others were
hypermetropic and astigmatic, one was slightly myopic and one had
mixed astigmatism. Of six cows, five were hypermetropic and astigmatic
and one was slightly myopic.

Six horses were also examined, of which one had normal sight, three
were hypermetropic and astigmatic, and two had a slight degree of
astigmatism. They also examined other animals, and the same proportion
of hypermetropia existed. These gentlemen found that as an optical
instrument the eye of the horse, cow, cat and rabbit is superior to
that of the rat, mouse and guinea pig.

I have for the last