ARE WE LOSING OUR SPECIAL SENSES ?
By G. P. CRCiWDEN
Is the maintenance of the natural efficiency of our special senses, hearing, vision and smell, endangered by the strain and conditions of contemporary civilization ?
Between five and six per cent, of young men medically examined for service in the Army are rejected as unfit because of disease of the middle ear, including deafness ; and, while ear disease is the principal single medical cause of rejection, a further three or four per cent. fail on grounds of grossly defective vision. Recent investiga- tions among elementary school children show that impair- ment of hearing in one or both ears is present in from six to eight per cent. of children of school age, and the returns of the Board of Education show that, approximately, 95 visual defects and cases of' eye disease are found among every 1,000 children examined. As regards the sense of smell, no special examination is usually carried out, and any loss of natural acuity may perhaps be accounted an advantage in the artificially created environments in whiei the major part of our lives are spent. No doubt lack of use and the almost universal practice of smoking are causes of the diminished acuity of this sense among civilized people in comparison with the native.
First of all, let us consider the ears, and specially note that the very fact of herding together as we do in towns and cities, in schools, places of amusement and transport vehicles, immeasurably increases the risk of spread of those conditions which commonly lead to impairment of hearing function. It is a well-established fact that the common diseases of childhood—measles, scarlet fever, whooping cough, or recurrent colds in the head—arc liable to cause disease of the middle ear. In such cases infection spreads to the car from the nose and throat ; and any accumulation of secretion or pus in the middle ear, or cavity behind the ear drum, rapidly causes pain ; and occasionally the internal pressure causes the drum to perforate, and a chronic discharge may ensue unless the condition is promptly and properly treated. A chronic infection of the middle ear not only results in permanent impairment of hearing, but is' a menace to general health,. and it cannot be too strongly emphasized that the ears of children need particular attention during, and after, the common diseases of child- hood. Any pain or discharge should be reported to the doctor. Partial deafness and chronic middle-ear disease are most frequently due to neglect in childhood, owing to the failure of parents to recognize the seriousness of everyday ills because of their common occurrence. In certain industries, notably boiler-making and riveting in ship construction, the hearing apparatus of the worker has to withstand conditions of noise and pressure-change in the air which impose too great a strain on the delicate mechanism of the ear, and among such workers the incidence and severity of deafness in both ears is particularly high. In this ease, the impairment of hearing is not due to disease but may be regarded as an attempt on the part of the human body to protect itself against the continued discomfort which would be caused by such loud noises reaching an ear possessing normal sensitivity to sound. However, when not at work, these men are at a social disadvantage, and therefore, if means are available for either diminishing the noise of machines or protecting the ears of the workers, then in the interests of human welfare such measures should be adopted.
In regard to vision, it may be pointed out that from the earliest times man has made use of artificial sources of light, but never in the history of the world has he used his eyes so much and under such varying conditions of illu- mination as he does today. The invention of printing in the fifteenth century and the spread of education naturally.
led to a greater and greater number of individuals using their eyes for near vision for long periods ; and, in addition, as line after line of type is read, more frequent and many more movements of the delicate eye muscles are made than would be necessary in viewing relatively large and distant objects in out-of-door life. Moreover, the varying size of type and the colour contrast in materials and fabrics necessitate appropriate illuinination for clear vision ; whilst the smaller the object, whether it be type or fine work in industry (e.g., filaments of electric lamps or silk threads of hosiery) the nearer must the object be held to the eye in order to furnish a large enough image • on the retina for clear definition of detail to be appreciated. It is evident, therefore, that at the present time we use our eyes for near vision to a far greater extent than did our forefathers, and small wonder is it, inasmuch as viewing a near object necessitates an effort on the part of the eye to focus the object and to converge both eyes on to it, that eye-strain and visual defects are of common occurrence. In some industries it has been found desirable for workers with perfectly normal vision to use spectacles at their work in order to prevent eye-strain, and thus preserve the good sight which they naturally possess.
Fortunately, school authorities pay very careful attention to defects of vision, the eyesight of every child in the elementary schools being carefully tested and, when neces- sary, corrected by suitable glasses. If neglected and un- corrected, eye defects are a common cause of headaches, and limit the worker's capacity for work. It should be more widely known that bad lighting and glare, both of which are very commonly met with both in houses and in industry, cause a great deal of unnecessary eye-strain ; that malnutrition predisposes to defective vision ; and that, in convalescence after illness, the eyes of children are more liable to be affected by excessive use.
While the sense of smell is of far less importance in our civilization than is hearing or vision, the maintenance of a clear air-way through the nose is essential to health. If you cannot hold a coin by the rim between your lips- i.e., not gripped by the teeth—for a minutes or so, then you are a mouth-breather, and your lungs are being deprived of the filtered, warmed and humidified air which it is the -function of the nose to provide ; for the various passages which make up the nose constitute a natural and efficient air-conditioning apparatus. The coinmon cold and other catarrhal conditions of the nose and throat, which are far too prevalent, may, if neglected, lead to more serious disease. Perhaps the best safeguard against these conditions is afforded by the cultivation in the child of good habits of nasal hygiene .and ,the encouragement of open-air life and physical recreation. Many of us let our children be cooped up in cinemas and such places when they should be in the playing fields. The sight of a queue of young children waiting at the door of a cinema at 10 a.m. on a sunny Saturday morning, while the playing fields near by are empty, should prick our hygienic conscience, if we have one.
Whilst this age of machinery and " provided " amuse- ment makes less and less. call on brawn and bone, the special senses are, from the cradle to the grave, being called upon to stand the strain of ever-increasing stimula- tion. We must have a care lest, by becoming " civilized " too rapidly, we fail to realize till too late the limitations of the human machine, and thus undermine the future of the race.
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