HYPERMETROPIA

Hypermetropia, commonly called far-sighted disease, is the opposite from myopia. In this condition, rays of light are brought to a focus back of the retina. There are usually blurred vision, headache, and nervous fatigue in attendance upon this form of eyestrain, and always the difficulty in accommodating at the near point.

The so-called far-sighted eye is not, in actual fact, better able to see at a distance than the normal eye. It is simply unable to see the things that are close to it.

It is obvious that the far-sighted person troubled with hypermetropia is unlikely to become the recluse "who always has his nose in a book." Reading over a period of time causes giddiness, clouding of the vision and often aninflammation of the eyelids. So this victim of eye-strain becomes the person of action.

PRESBYOPIA

The popular name for presbyopia far-sighted disease is middle-age sight and it is caused by flabby muscles which have lost their powers of accommodation. It has generally been supposed that presbyopia is one of the inescapable handicaps of increasing age and that nothing can be done about it.

The saddest thing about theories is that someone always comes along who proves to be the exception to the rule, like that rugged individualist whom Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes described in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table:

There is now living in New York State an old gentleman who, perceiving his sight to fail, immediately took to exercising it on the finest print, and in this way fairly bullied Nature out of her foolish habit of taking liberties at five-and-forty, or thereabouts. And now this old gentleman performs the most extraordinary feats with his pen, showing that his eyes must be a pair of microscopes. I should be afraid to say how much he writes in the compass of a half-dime— whether the Psalms or the Gospels, or the Psalms and the Gospels, I won't be positive."

Both presbyopia and hypermetropia (also called far-sighted disease) have points of resemblance, the chief being that, in both cases, there is a strain to see at the near point. The person suffering from presbyopia can demonstrate for himself the effect of strain on his vision. If you find that you are suffering from discomfort after reading this book for some time, try palming for a few moments, and you will discover when you pick up your book again, that you are able to read, with clearer vision, and with the book held much closer to your eyes. This improvement may be only of a few minutes' duration, but it will be evidence of the fact of strain.

Just as myopia and hypermetropia far-sighted diseases reveal personality factors, so does presbyopia. Perhaps, from a personality standpoint, it might be said that no one gains so much by visual re-education as the victim of presbyopia. As this type of eyestrain ordinarily appears with middle age—though the list of exceptions is long, ranging from presbyopic eyes in the very young to normal vision at ninety—it is accompanied by the beginning of mental rigidity, of fixed habits of thinking and acting, of indications that a person has "become fixed in his groove."

For such a far-sighted person the learning of new mental and physical habits is not easy but it is ultimately rewarding in an extremely rich way because it tends to develop a new flexibility in the use of the mind and freshness of viewpoint.

ASTIGMATISM

In astigmatism, there is no exact focus because of an unequal pull of the muscles, which causes the eyeball and cornea to be unsymmetrical instead of a perfect sphere.

Psychologically, there is usually an emotional condition accompanying astigmatism that may lead to an impairment of the health or to nervous upsets.

The person with astigmatism not only has difficulty in seeing distinctly but the object at which he is looking may take on strange shapes and forms. Of no case is it so true that "seeing is deceiving," for the astigmatic eye is the victim of odd illusions. He may see the object at which he is looking in multiple form; he may see one part of it and not the rest. It is small wonder, then, that he frequently tends to be a somewhat confused individual, as he is constantly registering distorted images upon his mind which struggles to identify and interpret these false pictures.

Astimatism may occur by itself or at the same time with short-sighted or far-sighted disease.

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