Popular Misconceptions in Connection with the Eyes

Misunderstandings, unwarranted assumptions, and old fashioned ideas in connection with the eyes and the relationship of eyesight to daily work are prevalent amongst the public and give rise to a great deal of excessive and unnecessary anxiety. Many of these ideas date from the old days before the mechanism and physiology of the eyes were understood. This period came to an end about eighty years ago with the introduction of modern ophthalmology by von Graefe, Donders and others. Twenty years later the discovery of the value of cocaine as a reliable local anaesthetic completed the transition. In previous times the treatment of eye conditions had been partly in the hands of " quacks " and specialism was in its infancy. Though some physicians, who did not disdain to include eye affections in their practice, and also some of the specialists, recognised the more obvious of the errors in the customary methods?for example, treatment in the dark and the excessive use of eye-shades and bandages?many did not, and the old traditions remained rooted in medical practice and public experience. With the increasing growth of informed specialism the new knowledge gradually became the prerogative and finally almost the monopoly of the specialists, while the older ophthalmology retained its position amongst practitioners and their patients. Thus two kinds of ophthalmic practice came to exist?that evolved by the specialists and that inherited and developed from the old ideas and customs. Of the latter, fortunately, much has become extinct, but enough still persists to exercise a misleading influence. As in the case of health conditions in general, such fears and anxieties are stimulated and disseminated by advertisements, the object of which is to promote the sale of remedies?in this case spectacles?and an inclination on the part of the public to respond to hearsay and common report causes regret rather than surprise. At the same time, the public relies for help in eye troubles in the first instance upon the family doctor, and it is