by its own exhaustion.

Civilization is the progenitor of many eye diseases.

After a boy has grown to that age when it becomes necessary for him to
begin the education prescribed by the wise men, obstacles are placed
in his way to aid again in causing deterioration of vision. It is not
so much the overcrowded condition of our school rooms as the enormous
amount of work that causes deterioration of sight. Our children begin
their school life at a time when they are too young. A child at six
years of age who is forced to study all day or even a part of a day
will not run the same race that one will who commences his studies at
ten--all things being equal. The law prescribes that so much time must
be devoted to study, so many forms must be passed, so many books must
be read, so many pages of composition written--all probably in badly
lighted rooms, or by artificial light. Note the effect. First,
possibly, distant vision gives way; the teacher, sympathizing with the
overburdened child, tries to make the burden lighter by changing his
position in the room or placing him under the cross light from a
window; as the evil progresses, the child is taken to an ophthalmic
surgeon, and the inevitable result, glasses, rightly called "crutches
for the eyes," are given. What would be thought of a cause which would
weaken the legs of that boy so that he would have to use crutches to
carry him through life? If civilization be responsible for an evil,
let our efforts be put forth in finding a remedy for that evil.

A discussion, in a recent number of the _British Medical Journal_,[2]
on "The Claims and Limitations of Physical Education in Schools," has
many valuable hints which should be followed by educators in this
country. Dr. Carter, in the leading paper on this subject, makes the
pregnant remark: "If the hope is entertained of building up a science
of education, the medical profession must combine with the profession
of teaching, in order to direct investigation and to collect material
essential to generalization. Without such co-operation educational
workers must continue to flounder in the morasses of empiricism, and
be content to purchase relative safety at the cost of slow progress,
or no progress at all." In other words, an advisory medical board
should coexist with our board of public education, to try to hold in
check or prevent a further "cruelty in trying to be kind." Private
institutions of education recognize the import