EYE-STRAIN


EYE-STRAIN. IF a patient suffering from some visual complaint goes to the oculist or optician, the eye is carefully examined in the usually way and then glasses are prescribed which are devised to normalize the sight as far as possible,m and the individual is satisfied if he is able to see what he wishes to see either from a distance or nearby.


THE EXAMINATION OF THE PATIENT

IF a patient suffering from some visual complaint goes to the oculist or optician, the eye is carefully examined in the usually way and then glasses are prescribed which are devised to normalize the sight as far as possible,m and the individual is satisfied if he is able to see what he wishes to see either from a distance or nearby. If the visual trouble is due to eye strain and if the sufferer continues to overstrain his eye, as is usually the case, then the glasses that were so satisfactory at the beginning becomes less and less useful, weakness of the eye developed once more; the patient goes to his oculist or optician to get stronger glasses.

Many oculists are optician tell their patient: “You ought to come to me every six months and have your eyes examined because in due course you will require stronger glasses.” Of course if is obvious that there is a limit to the strength of the glasses which can be supplied, and when the strongest glasses have at last been prescribed and the patient is once more troubled with failing sight, then he is told that he can no longer be helped by strong glasses, and must do the best he can, and endeavour perhaps to read with a magnifying glass, which he dose and will find highly unsatisfactory. Not a few people lose their sight after having been given strong and ver stronger glasses.

A through investigation of visual troubles is not a simple matter and we regard it as impossible to prescribable adequately for complaints of sight by the examination with which everyone is familiar. We have had extraordinary successes in treating cases which have been described as hopeless and absolutely incurable by leading orthodox practitioners, and it is our duty, both to practitioners and to suffering humanity to make known our method which differ widely from those usually practised in Harley Street or elsewhere.

As we have repeatedly stated, most eye troubles are due to overstrain and gross misuse of the eyes which is almost universal amongst who are troubled with weakness of sight. Naturally the patient has to be taught now to use his eyes, he has to be taught how to avoid overstrain and the tuition is not easy, because many patient from their childhood have habitually overstrain their eyes and have to alter completely habits which have become deeply ingrained.

Our examination of the eyes begins like that generally practised. One has to employ the best and most efficient ophthalmoscope in studying eye trouble. One must not merely glance at the eyes but study them with the utmost thoroughness and study every part of the ocular structure. Defects of vision are readily seen if they are gross, but there are innumerable other factors which have to be studied as well.

Laymen are not aware that numerous diseases and disorders leave a strong impression in the eye The experienced practitioners will see evidence of diseases such as anaemia, gout, tuberculosis, syphilis, etc. If the eye practitioner discovers that the patient suffers from rheumatism or from tuberculosis, it is quite likely that weakness of vision has developed largely because the patient suffers from these complaints, for which he is usually treated by the doctor.

A short-sighted individual suffering from rheumatism or tuberculosis should be treated not only by correcting the eyesight but by correcting the constitutional defects which may be contributing to failure of sight. If the practitioner discovers from examination of the eye that the patient is very anemic, then of course the anaemia should be dealt with. It cannot, however, be dealt with adequately by prescribing iron in some form or other, as is usually done. Iron is frequently ruinous to the teeth and to the digestion, and is constipating.

It must be due to a discovered why the patient is anaemic. Anaemia maybe due to a faulty diet, to constipation, auto- intoxication, to some disease or other, to worry, to inadequate exercise, to insufficient fresh air, to heavy loss of blood at menstruation, to bleeding from the nose, etc. After all, the eye is part of the body, and failure of eyesight is frequently due to broad constitutional causes which have to be treated.

Mental factors must not be forgotten; they are often extremely important. Nervous people are apt to often from faulty sight, but one has to discover the cause of the nervousness, and to enquire into the diet, habits, method of living, etc., one must enquire into marital relations, etc. Unhappiness in the home may head to nerve trouble followed by eye troubles. In case of need one should the husbands or wife to call, and explain that it is essential that to the partner in marriages may prove more helpful then glasses carefully chosen.

Defects of sight are largely constitutional; serious skin disease, violent indigestion and many other factors influence sight. Sight is, of course, affected, particularly if there is severe indigestion or severe constipation accompanied by self- poisoning.

When we have investigated the eyes of the patient have studied the body and bodily habits and the surrounding circumstances as a whole and when we have explained the necessity for preserving the eyesight by avoiding overstrain, then we examination the eyesight by avoiding overstrain, then we examine the question of heredity. Usually one can find a cause for hereditary eye trouble.

There are children who are born with weak sight and frequently weakness of sight is due, not to the apparatus of vision, but to the internal muscles of the eye while affect the eyeball. Patient come to us complaining about failing eyesight and are surprised when we ask innumerable questions about their diet, their domestic conditions, illnesses, medicines taken habitually, etc. A patient is still more astonished when he is asked about his childhood diseases, whether he had had measles, scarlatina or other childhood illness of which he may know little and may have to consult his parents.

If eye trouble is apparently due to some disease of childhood, then that disease must be treated, and the practitioner who dose not know to treat these disease cannot do as much good as the practitioner who understands the interrelation of the numerous factors mentioned with the factor of sight. If there should be inherited syphilis or tuberculosis, then treatment of these diseases may be essential to restore sight, but the orthodox treatment for the disease mentioned is not always helpful; therefore Homoeopathic treatment is advisable.

Homoeopaths treat diseases not with injections of disease material in substantial quantities or with powerful drug which occasionally upset patients badly; they use infinitely small quantities of drugs which cannot do any harm and which may do a vast amount of good. The body of the patient should be examined as a whole. If the individual is flabby throughout, it is no9t unnatural that the muscles controlling the eye should be flabby as well. The patient should be strengthened by whatever means may be indicated.

If the patient in question is very plethoric and is likely to have a stroke, then the patient should be treated accordingly, not by drawing the blood away in the old-fashioned manner which is no longer popular, but by those means which are known to every experienced practitioner. If the patients liver should be out of order, if his kidneys do not function well, then investigation should be made if the practitioner wishes to cure the sufferer of visual defects.

Scarlett