"WHY GLASSES ARE HARMFUL FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE" AND EVERYONE ELSE
For nearsights, Kennebeck writes:
"Inside of twenty feet the glasses are many times worse. Glasses are wrong at every foot inside of twenty feet. At ten feet the glasses are twice wrong; at five feet they are four times wrong; at one foot, they are twenty times wrong ... This is the reason glasses are not scientifically correct ... eyes cannot compensate through glasses made for twenty feet for all other distances, WITHOUT BEING HURT ... This is what brings on progressive myopia, which could have been prevented if the glasses had never been prescribed or worn...."
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My observations: I used to wear glasses occassionally for reading signposts while driving. If you're myopic, have you ever noticed that while wearing glasses to correct distance, the rain smudges on the windshield become less apparent than if the glasses were off? The first time I had clear flashes while driving in broad daylight, I noticed that the distance was as clear as the rain smudges on the windshield normally would be for the myopic person who could see fairly well at 2-3 feet (distance of windshield); so it was like having equal sight at all distances. Glasses are incapable of correcting vision at all distances simulateously. Is this observation correct?
Glasses and Bates is a pretty complex subject, partly because for most generalizations about it, there are exceptions that go completely against the rule.
As far as what you say about raindrops on the windshield, your observations are certainly valid, but I can't personally say much because there's a lot I don't remember about wearing glasses.
But generally I wouldn't expect what you say unless you're unable to focus near very well (presbyopia), or unless your glasses are very strong (and they aren't, as you say). A smaller pupil will cause a greater range of distances to be clear at once. But I wouldn't worry about it at any rate.
Kenneback I believe writes from the perspective of the "nearwork theory" of myopia, which states that myopia isn't caused by strain or misuse of the eyes but simply by focusing close too much, and made worse by glasses that cause the eyes to exert an abnormal amount of effort to focus near because of the compensation they provide. And that last part I do agree with.
Glasses do damage in more ways than that, though. I think there must be a couple dozen different points against them. Some people opt for reduced prescription lenses, to give room for some improvement, but I never really hear stories of them having clear flashes and longer periods of clear vision like I do those who go completely without. Glasses in reduced prescriptions still carry most of the bad influences of "full" strength glasses.
Dave
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"Half of our funny, heathen lives, we are bent double to gather things we have tossed away." - George Meredith
