A vast amount of popular misapprehension and prejudice exists as to the use of spectacles. Many persons who need them object to wearing them for various reasons. Some fear that it will lead their friends to suspect that they are getting old. Others think it will cause them to be suspected of wishing to appear learned or cultured. Some persons do not want to begin to wear them lest, having acquired the habit, they may not be able to leave them off or to see well without them. Others again object to glasses only on account of their inconvenience. I have personally met with many of all these classes of persons, but I have frequently heard of another class that I have never met with, namely, those who do not need glasses, but who wear them just for effect and to attract attention. Now, the simple truth is that there are just two good reasons for wearing spectacles, and only two. One is that we may see better, the other is that our eyes may be relieved of strain. Often both these reasons are combined in the same case. Many children begin to be near-sighted after they have attended school a few years. They first find it out by observing that they cannot see letters or figures on the blackboard as far as the other children. They can use their eyes as much as they want to without fatigue or blurring, or smarting, or burning, or itching, or pain in the eyes, or headache. In short, they show no symptoms of eye strain. They simply do not see distant objects distinctly. Such children should be fitted with glasses at once that will enable them to see as well as others at a distance, and these glasses should be worn constantly. The child should be instructed to take them off only when necessary to wipe them or to wipe or bathe the eyes and on going to bed. The sooner the eyes get accustomed to them the less likely is the near-sightedness to increase. Moreover, the child who sees clearly only a few feet away from him loses a very important part of his education. Our eyes gather information for us when we are least thinking of it, by taking cognizance of the many objects that come within our field of vision just as our ears gather material for the proper development of our minds in listening to general conversation or to the sounds of nature and of busy life about us. It is the duty of every one to make the best possible use of the faculties the Creator has bestowed upon him. The near-sighted person who does not have his vision corrected by glasses fails in the performance of this duty. [8] Continued from SUPPLEMENT, No. 647, page 10342. From a paper by David Webster. M.D., professor of ophthalmology in the New York Polyclinic and surgeon to the Manhattan Eye and Ear Hospital, New York.