Article September 5, 1903 Issue

New Sight in Science

LOUISE DELILSE RADZINSKI.

DURING my childhood my sight offered such phenomena that one of the leading oculists of Europe was consulted on the subject. He studied the case with great interest. He found that the houses across the street were to me mountains as real as those that bounded the horizon, of which people told me, since I could not see them clearly, yet I could see and separate the fine rosy down on the under side of begonia leaves, or separate and count the pearly cells between the ribs of a liquorice leaf, and point out parts of insects that usually require a magnifying glass. So the famous oculist said, "The child will do well if let alone; nature will take care of the case if she is not pressed to look beyond the range of her sight; as she grows older the eye-ball will flatten and her sight lengthen in proportion; so never make her wear glasses!"

The wise man's words proved true; not only did my range of vision increase with the years, but the sight itself proved exceptionally good till there came a season of stress from claims of sickness in my family, during which books were set aside and the duties of nurse devolved upon me. This continued for several months. When harmony and order once more ruled the home it was decided that I deserved a holiday, and I sped to the mountains where I usually spent my vacations, and where every feature was dear and familiar.

There a strange experience awaited me, for every object was changed; not so much in size as in distance and value; and I found I must reorganize the whole scheme of visible creation before I could find myself at home again in my former haunts. In the city objects always crowded upon me, and I had been too busy to notice any change; but upon the unbroken hillsides, looking off over wide spaces of country, I learned the delight of seeing, clearly, villages with their tall steeples and groups of white dwellings, where formerly I could only distinguish a break in the woodland. The white bridges spanning the streams in the plain below, gave a sense of human companionship and interest the land had never had before;and to be able to look into the far distance, and tell where sky and sea met, was joy unspeakable!

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