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ESTABLISHED 1865. NEWBERRY, S. C., FRIDAY, MAY 16, L902 TWICE A WEEK.$1.50 A YEAR CARE OF EYESIGHT DURING SCHOOL LIFE, AN INTEEsTING PAPER READ BE FORE THE COUSTY TEACHERS' AS so naiTION. At the Urgcat Reqaest of Saveral Teachers Who Heard the Paper Read Dr J. M Kibler Consents to Its PublicatIon. The following paper was read by Dr. James M. Kibler before the meeting of the County Teachers' Association on Saturday, the 10th. inst., and at the urgent request of some of those who heard it, it is pub lished. THE ADDRESs. I have been called upon to address you today upon a subject which un til quite recent years received no at tention from any of our public schools, North or South. The hygtnic laws governing other organs of the body have justly re ceived proper consideration; and the industrial hygene regulating the school room and premises as to filib, ill-ventilated class rooms, ' over heated rooms, draughts of cold air, accumulation of foul gases, etc., have commanded the closest atten tention of the public boards of all our schools. Advice as to an overworked brain, a frail body, a slowly developed brain or body; rules as to the best methods of imparting instruction to the pu pils; the question as to the number of school hours per day, and whether it is better to have one long session with intervals of two short recesses, or two sessions with a long interval for noon or dinner; the question of how many pupils one teacher can manage, or when a room may be considered overcrowded; the ques tion of co education etc., have all re ceived their due consideration from -this association. Health rules as to the proper care of the mouth and teeth and skin, the proper clothing to wear in doors- and out doors, food and diet, how to pre serve the throat and voice, how to keep good hearing, have been time and again given to all grades of schoolslife from the elementary schools to the special technical col leges, but rarely ever does one see advice given upon the proper care of the eyesight during school life. No subject is of more vital im portance. Upon good eyesight often depends the suecess or failure of a pupil, not only during school-life, but also his whole life afterwards. The child may have ever so bad vision and be backward in learning, and fall behind his class and become discouraged, and never know why he cannot compete with his fellows. When we 'emember that whatever he learns must be gotten from proper and careful reading, and this cannot be had with imperfect vision, we are not surprised at his fate. I shall offer a few snggest ions for the proper guidance of the teacher, and. hope that from them some good may result. Before doing so, however, it is necessary that at least an elementary knowledge of the anatomy and phy - siology of the eye, and the simplest laws of optics be understood. The eyeball so delicately con structed and adjusted, resting in a boney socket for protection from outside blows, surrounded by fatty tissue and the muscles which control its movements, covered and shaded by its lids and lashes and brows to shield it from dust and an excess of light, bathed in its own tears from the Iachrymal gland, placed in the forefront of the head as pilot look ing out for the safety of the body, is one of the greatest wonders of Nature. It is nearly spherical in form and about one inch in diameter. For convenience of description it is sometimes spoken of as consisting of three membranes or coats and three humors. The external or fibrous coat is strong, tough and elastic. It main tains the form of the ball and pro tects its contents and furnishes the attachments of the external muscles The sclerotic which forms about four-fifths of this coat and the pos. ] terior portion of the ball is com monly known as the "white of the eye." The anterior one-fifth or cornea is transparent and joined to the scle - | rotic very much as a watch crystal is set in a watch. On casually look ing at the eye the observor does not 4 notice it as the colored iris is seen through it on account of its trans. I pareny. The coat may be plainly < seen by taking a side view of the i eyeball. ] The second coat of the eyeball t from without is the vascular coat com - I posed of the choroid behind and the i iris in front. The choroid is a net t work of blood vessels and pigment i cells covering the inner side of the scleroatic and posterior surface of the < iris. The use of this dark surface I is to absorb the excess of light that j may gain entrance into the eye. The i iris forms a curtain behind the cor nea, or front of the eye, to the mar- E gins of which it is attached, and con- I tains the pupil or window through which light is transmitted to the re- i tina. It is the iris that gives to f the eye its color and beauty of ex pressions at its marginal surface are C attached two sets of muscles-the i ciliary muscles-which contract or e dilate the pupil and determine the amount of light admitted. I The internal or third coat of the f eye is known as the retina. This is t the most important membrane of the 1 eye, and in fact all the remainder of the eye is subservient to it. For it i is upon this that light impinges, aud N images are formed and we are said I to see. f This membrane is only one one hundred-and-twentieth of an inch in i thickness, yet it has been divided by a the microscope into nearly a dozen j layers, the most important of which < are the internal and external. The internal is the conductive t layer, while the external is the per- i ipient layer that receive the sensa- r tion of light and communicates it to the brain through the optic nerve. E This nerve can take cognizance only < of the sensation of light, and hence i feels no pain. Any irritation of it t produces a flash of light, and one may be made to "see stars" when the a eye receives a severe blow. Here r physiology and psychology are close ly Allied. How can material sub stance communicate an impression. t to a material brain and psychological j phenomena result? We shall now speak of the three humors of the eye. They are the aqueous, crystalline and vitreous. The aqueous humor is a watery flnid filling the anterior chamber of the eye, between the cornea and the crystalline or lens. 'The crystalline humor, or lerLs, i - a firm, transparent semi-solid e 40 stance, held in a transparent elastic capsule which maintains its form that of a dounle convex lens. It is upon the shape and density of the lens that accuracy of vision depends. The vitreous humor fills the poste ror cbamber of the eye. It is color es and transparent and is well adapted to form a cushion for the delicate retina, and preserve the firmness and elasticity of the eyeball. "The.eye is a wonderful example of skilful packing, combining firm ness, elasticity, compactness, mobility and safety in a degree of perfection that can never be approached by art and is perhaps scarcely equalled else where in nature.'" Having given an elementary de scription of the anatomy of the dif ferent parts of the eye, we shall now consider some of their functions or physiology. Before the astronomer, Kepler, discovered that the eye is nothing more than a photographer's camera, the act of seeing was veiled in obscure mystery. In the camera the images of objects fall upon a chemically sensitive plate, in the eye they fall upon the sensitively nerv ous retina. In the eye the sides of the camera are represented by the sclerotic, the darkened inner surface by the choroid, the opening by the pupil, the convex lens by the cornea and crystallhne lens and the surface to receive the image by the retina. To nderstand the physiology of rision, however, one must have a inowledge of the laws of refraction )f light. It is a well known fact in >ptics that a ray of light penetrat ng a medium of lesser or greater lensity than the one from which it )merges changes its directions, or is efracted. A number of parallel rays ?assing through a medium of differ )nt density are refracted, but emerge itill parallel. But if the surfaces of he medium are curved the rays merge divergent or convergent, just Ls the prism is concave or convex. lence, rays of light passing through he crystalline lens of the eye are >rought to a focus on the sensitive etina behind. Here the image of he external object is made in an in erted position. Thus you observe we do not see >bjects, but their images; and we eara from experience that the ob ect is not upside down, but only the mage. The more convex the lens the horter will be its focusing power. [he ciliary muscles have the prop irty of rendering the lens more con ,ex or less convex according as we ,re looking at near or distant objects. This is called power of accommo lation. The abuse of this faculty 3 one of the most fruitful sources of ,vil in school life. In the above remarks we have een spbaking of the perfectly ormed, or emmetropic, eye-one hat is able to focus parallel rays of ight accurately upon the retina. There are a great many optical efects that arise durings chool life 7hich should be readily recognized ty the teacher, and recommended or correction. The most common of these are ng sight, or hypermetropia; short ight, or myopia, and astigmatism. ong-sight is produced by the axis f the eyeball, the distance from the ornea to the retina, being less than he focal distance of the eye, and ence the image falls behind the etmna. This condition is known as "flat ye." Tbe same results are seen in ild age, only the cause is due to an acreased density and convexity of he lens. This condition can be relieved by Sconvex glass, which will bring the ays of light more quickly to a focus. Just the opposite condition is met eith in near sight. Here the oxis is oo long and the image is focused in ont of the retina. Of course a con ave lens will correct such malforma ion. This is one of the most seri-) us conditions in errors of refraction. f allowed to go on unaided most ppalling results may happen and he child's vision become a wreck. It is the most frequent defect met vith in the young, and as the eyes re soft and elastic, the distortion ~rows worse and worse as work is mposed upon them. The increase n such cases is very rapid from he elementary to the high schools. n some countries, as Germany, it is noe often met with than in others, ind more often seen in cities than in owns or rural districts. In the remarks upon long sight mnd short-sight it was assumed that he eye remained stationary. But his is not true in nature, as the iliary. muscles are constantly at ork rendering the crystalline lens nore or less convex as the case may ieed or the distance of the object ooked at may require. This brings bout the strain upon defective eyes, rnd a train of symptons such as eadache, pains in the eyes and gen ral fatigue follow. There remains yet one other con lition common among those who iave defective vision. This is known s astigmatism. The normal shape >f the cornea is that of a section of a phere, and any variation from this uniformity in curvature brings about stigmatism, or different focal dis Lances for the different meridians. The trouble can only be corrected by glasses made from a cylinder and set in frames so adjusted that the merid ans will all be brought to the same focus. If I have spoken at length and proved tiresome I have no apology Concluded on 4th page. Dire Necessity Now Reigns In lartinique. SURVIVORS OF THE CATASTROPHE ARE IN URGENT NEED. Prompt Relief Measures Taken. An Amer ican Council Gives a Description of the Awful Scene at St. Pierce. Fort de France, Island of Martini lue, May 12.-It now seems to be yenerally admitted that about 30, )00 persons lost their lives as a re iult of the outbreak of the Mont Pelee volcano, at St. Pierre, on rhursday last. Careful investigation >y competent government officials how the earlier reports of the Asso %iated Press were accurate. Briefly put, last Thursday morn ng the city of St. Pierrce disappear d within five minutes in a whirl ind, fire vomiting from Mont Pe ee; 30,000 persons were instantly Lnd horribly killed and the volcano, vhose crater for more than 50 years iad been occupied by a quiet lake n which picnic parties bathed, sud lenly discharged a torrent of fiery nud, which rolled toward the sea, ngulfing everything before it. Then he last of cable communication was >roken, and the doomed city was solated from the world. The repair ship Grappler was lost vith all on board, as was the French ressel Tamaya. There were 18 or 0 vessels in the roadstead at the ime of the disaster. The British teamer Roddam had anchored but apt. Freedman, although horri )ly burned, managed to keep on t' e )ridge of his vessel. Everybody n the Roddam's deck was kPled stantly, but with the assistance of is third engineer and a fireman, vho were wounded, the captain >rought his vessel to St. Lucia. dany persons tried to reach the loddom, but in vain. The United tates vice consul at St. Pierre, madee Testart, reached the deck >f the Roddam only to fall back in he sea dead. Three hours exploration of the -un of St Pierrce resulted in the inding of no trace of the American onsulate. Council Thomas T. rentiss, his wife and two daugh ers, are undoubtedly dead. That uarter of this city is still a vast nass of blazing ruins. Nor has any race been found of James Japp, he British consul. Mr. Japp had large family at St. Pierre. CONSUL AYME' S STORY. The American consul at Guade oupe, Louis H. Ayme, has reached he desolate spot where St. Pierrce itood and confirm the awful story n all its essential details . From an interview with Col. Ayme, ho is a trained American newspaper nan, a correspondent of the Associa ed Press learned the following fact: Thursday morning the inhabit ants f the city awoke to find heavy cloud! brouding the Mount Pelee crater. all day Wednesday horrid detona ions had been heard. These were choed from St. Thomas on the iorth to Barbadoes o.a the south. rhe cannonading ceased on Wedones 3Lay night the fine ashes fell like rair >n St. Pierre. The inhabitant! were alarmed, but Gov. Mouttet who had arrived at St. Pierrce the avening before, did everything pos* ible to allay the panic. The Brit ish steamer Roraima reached St. Pierre on Thursday with 10 passen. ers, among whom were Mrs. Stoke! and her three children and Mrs H. J. Ince. They were watching the rain of fashes, when, with a frightful roar and terrific electric discharges, a cyclone of fire mud and steam swept down from thE crater over the towvn and bay, sweep ing all before'it and destroying th4 fleet or vessels at anchor off the shore. There the accounts of th4 catastrophe so far obtainable cease THE DEAD IN T HE SEA. Thirty thousand corpses are strewi about, buried in the ruins of St Pierrce, or else floating, gnawed b: sharks, in the surrounding seas Twenty-eight charred, half deat human bodies were brought here Sixteen of them are already dead and only four of the whole numbe are expecterl to recover. A VISIT TO THE SCENE. The Associated Press steamer, chartered in Guadeloupe, near Mar tinique at 6:30 Sunday morning. The island with its lofty hills was hid behind a huge veil of violet, or leaden colored haze. Enormous quantities of the wreckage of large and small ships and houses strewed the surface of the sea. Huge trees and too often bodies with flocks of sea gulls soaring above and hideous sharks fighting about them, were floating here and there. From be hind the volcanic veil came blasts of hot wind, mingled with others ice cold. At Le Precheur, five miles north of St. Pierre, Canoes with men and women, frautic to get away, begged fur a passage on the steamer. The whole north end of the island was covered with a silver gray cost ing of ashes resembling dirty snow. Furious blasts of fire, ashes and mud swept over the steamer but finally St. Pierre was reached. The city of St. Pierre stretched nearly two miles along the water front and half a mile back to the cliff at the base of the volcano. The houses of the richer French families were built of stone. The still smoking volcano towered above the ash covered hills. The ruins were burning in many places and frighting oders of burned flesh filled the air. With great difficulty a landing was effected. Not one house was left intact. Viscid heaps of mud, of brighter ashes or piles of ovlcano stones, were seen on every side. The streets could hardly be traced. Here and there amid the ruins were heaps of corpses. Ala.ost all the faces were downward. In one corner 22 bodies of men women and children were min gled with in one awful mass, arms and legs protruding as the hapless being fell in the last struggles of death's agony. Through the middle of the old Place Bertin ran a tiny stream, the remains of the river Gayave. Great trees with roots upward and scorched with fire, were strewn in every di rection. Huge blocks and still hot stones were scattered about. From under one large stone the arm of a white woman protruded. Most no table was the utter silence and the awful, overpowering stench from the thousands of dead. DEATH F..oM sUFFOCATION. Careful inspection showed that the fiery stream which so completely de stroyed St. Pierre must have been composed of. poisonous gases, which instantly suffocates every one who in ales them, and of other gases burn log furiously, for nearly all the vic tims had their hands covering their mouths or were in some other atti tude, showing that they had sought relief from 'suffocation. All the bod ies are carbonized or roasted. A. G. Austen, the manager of the Colonial Bank of Barbodo'es, landed at St. Pierre with a party from the British royal mail steamer Solent. He found the bank clock stopped at some minutes before 8 o'clock. A horse and a buggy and a policeman were in a dead group at the door. CONG RESs APPROPRIATES $200,000 FOR RELIEF OF DEsTITUTE--PREsIDENT NAMED $300,000. Washington, May 12.-The house today passed by an overwhelming vote a bill granting $500,000 for the relief of the sufferers in the great calamity in the West Indies. The bill was a substitute to the relief measure passed by the senate, which carried 8100,000, the increase hav ing followed the receipt of a message from the president setting forth the magnitude of the calamity and urg ing an appropriation of $500,000. A sp)ecial mee'ing of the appropria tion committee was held to facilitate action on the bill and it was re ported to the house within a short time after the receipt 6f the Presi dent's message. In presenting the measure, Mr. Hemenway, the acting chairman o:f the appropriation comn mittee, explained that the amount was limited to $200,000, owing to Conchided on 4th nage TEXT OF FINDING IN THE DOMINICK CASE. - f OFFICIAL REPORT FILED WITH TffE I GOVERNOR TUESDAY. Summary of Facts Presented-Committee Tell why it Held Mr. Dominick Guilt less of Wrong Doing. [The State, I3th.] The documents giving the find- I ings of the legislative investigation committee in the case of Represent- t qtive Dominick of Newberry was t yesterday filed with the governor t for transmission to the general as- t sembly at its next session. The document is given herewith in full t so as to complete the record. It reads as follows: To the President of the Senate and s Speaker of the House of Repre- t sentatives of the State of South 2 Carolina: t The sub-committee of the judi- t ciary committees of the senate and t of the house, to whom was referred a the investigation pursuant to a con- t current resolution passed on the 9 22nd day of February, 1902, which2 provides: 'Whereas it appears 0 from the statements of the conferees r] on the part of the senate upon the ti differences between the two houses upon a bill to amend an act entitled t 'An act to provide for the county t government of the various counties t of this State,' approved on the 6th t day of March, 1899, that the report t of the committee on free confer- t ence upon said bill was signed under misapprehension induced by misrepresentations made to them by one of the conferees on the part t of the house of representatives; now t be it resolved by the senate, the r house of representatives concurring, i that it be referred to the judiciary t committees of the senate and of the t house or a sub-committee appointed t b- them to inquire into and inves- t tigate the circumstances surround- t ing the report of said conference committee on said bill, with power to sit during the recess and to send for persons and papers and exam-e ie the same, and to employ a sten ographer ; and that said committee do report their findings to the next general assembly,'' respectfully re ports that the judiciary committeesc of the senate and house met and ap pointed a sub-committee of six members, three from the judiciary committee of the senate, consisting ot Senators Hay, Graydon and Mayfield, and three from the judi ciary committee of the house, con sisting of Representatives Bacot, 1 Croft and Gaston. That sub-com-t mittee called a meeting to be held at 12 -in. on Wednesday, the 7th I day of May, 1902, in Columbia; and pursuant to said call, said com- - mittee organized and took the tes- I timony of all members of the senate 1 and the house who were on the con-< ference committees, together with the testimony of such other per-< sons who knew anything of the< matter, so far as said committee< could ascertain, which said testi- 1 mony is herewith reported. That I pursuant to said resolution, we find that the free conference committee 1 report was not signed because of1 any misrepresentations made on the part of any member of said com.n mittee, or other member of the gen- 1 eral aesembly, or any other person, 1 but that two members of the sen ate free conference committee did 1 not understand the scope and ex tent of the amendments which were proposed to the bill, as pro vided in the free conference com mittee report ; but that no one im puted unworthy motives of Mr. Dominick, who secured the signing of the reprrt. ThaL as to the circumstances sur rounding the report of the said con ference committee on said bill, we respectfully report that we find that a bill was pending in the gen eral assembly in the session of 1901 to amend section 15 of what is commonly known as the dispensary bill, so as to "prevent the manu facture and selling of liquor within two miles of any church or public school house,'' and that on a free confrene, committee a proviso was .dded so as to amend said bill, to rive the power to the State Board if Directors to grant "privileges or the erection and operation of ireweries, distilleries and establish aents for the bottling and sale of ieer, styled beer dispensaries, in ities of over 2o,ooo population, to ie operated as now provided by Iw,'' and that said reports as ap ears on the house'journal. Febru ry 15, 1901, page 605, was adopted y the senate and by the house; bat during the interim between be sessions the bill was not found D be operative so far as it affected eer privileges in some cities, and bat this was an attempt made by Dme members of the general as emby to amend the dispensary bill, D as to allow beer dispensaries to e operated within the cities of O,ooo population, and to enlarge be powers of the board of direc :rs. Mr. Dominick took the coun y government senate bill (No-531) nd, -ifter having stated his purpose > amend this particular bill by en rafting on it a provision to carry ut the desires aforementioned, with thers secured a conference com iittee report whereby the commit ae failed to agree, and called for a ree conference committee, and on e said free conference committee bere was appointed on the part of e senate W. C. Hough, Wm. El erton and J. T. Douglass, and on be part of the house, W. 0. Ta m, Fred. H. Dominick and 'homas Butler. That said Representative Domi ick took the printed copies of the ill which had formerly been in roduced in the senate and pasted bem on blanks used for committee ports. so as to have duplicate cop s, one for the senate and one for be house, as was customary, and :ok said free conference report as bus amended, having stricken out be title of the bill as originaly in roduced, and all after the enacting words, and inserted as the title the llowing : "A bill to authorize and empow r the board of directors of the ~tate dispensary to grant permits or the establishment and operation f dispensaries for the sale of beer y retail or otherwise, in cities of ver 2o,000 population, and to provide for the bonding of the olders of such permits, and to ap oint said dispensers.'' And the following after the en .cting words: "Section i. That the board of lirectors of the State dispensary >e, andl they are hereby authorized o grant permits for the establish nent and operation of dispensaries 'or sale of beer by retail or other vise, in all cities in this State of >ver zo,ooo population ;and they are 'urther authorized and empowered o appoint the dispensers who shall :onduct the said establishments. Sec. 2. That said permit shall :ontinue and be of force for a term f four years, unless revoked for :ause by the State board of direc ors. And the holders thereof shall 1ave power to manufacture, bottle Ld sell, by retail or otherwise, >eer according to the restriction 1w provided by law. Sec. 3. That the holders of such >ermits shall be required to give >ond in the same amount and to >e approved in the same manner, s is now provided by law for )onds of county dispensers.'' And presented said free confer Concluded on 4th page. Baking Powder Makes the bread more healthful. Safeguards the food against alum. 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