Page:Personal beauty how to cultivate and preserve it in accordance with the laws of health (1870).djvu/101

 When there is a tendency to become near-sighted, it can be prevented by closing the eyes and passing the fingers with a gentle equable pressure from the corner next the nose outward. This should be repeated a number of times every day, and the eye should always be wiped in the same direction. The cornea is thus flattened, and the angle of vision lengthened.

The reverse of this procedure will be found very efficacious when the sight begins to fail from years or over-work. Then the pressure should be made from the outer angles inward. By doing this regularly and skilfully, elderly people can remain gloriously independent of spectacles to any age they are likely to reach.

There are a vast number of diseases of the eye, to most of which we shall make no reference whatever. It should be a rule with every one to have first-class medical advice whenever any trouble, no matter how insignificant, arises in this important and delicate organ. Sometimes the delay of a few hours renders the case hopeless.

Some peculiarly disfiguring disorders, as coming within our special department, must be mentioned. One is "cross-eyes," or "squinting," the strabismus of medical men. Every one knows what this is, and every one can imagine how painful it is to a person thus to be singled out as an object of curiosity, and often of ridicule. Moreover, the sight is certain to be