Dear Ace,

    "I know that most men ...  can seldom accept even the
simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them
to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in
explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to
others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the very
fabric of their lives."

    Leo Tolstoy

    The formulation of a problem is often far more essential than
its solution, which may be a matter of mathematical or
experimental skill.  To raise new questions, new possibilities, to
regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative
imagination and marks real advances in science.

    Albert Einstein

    Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately
explained by stupidity.

    Hanlon's Razor

Subject:  The second-opinion on plus-prevention.

    Here is some commentary and a short article on nearsightedness
research -- FYI.

    THIS IS THE DIFFICULT PROBLEM AN OPTOMETRIST WILL HAVE WITH
US IF HE ATTEMPTS TO INTRODUCE PREVENTIVE METHODS WITH US -- AND
WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE METHOD.

For the person who has a low-power minus (-1.0 diopters)
the pseud-myopia statge that we all go through, the
bi-focal is not necessary.   All that is required is to make a habit
of using a "relaxing" +2 diopter lens for all reading and
computer work. The REAL issue is the dicipline it
thakes to do it -- as Jon did it.

Best,

Otis

++++++++++++++++++

From:  "Trying to get myopia into focus"

David Holzman, INSIGHT, Feb 16, 1987

Summary:  Numerous researchers are exploring the causes of myopia
     in order to find ways to prevent its onset in children.  At
     the heart of the problem is uncertainty whether genetics or
     environmental factors such as close work cause the disorder
     or, as some studies have indicated, it is a combination of
     both.  If one geneticist is right, two-thirds of the myopia
     developed by children eventually may be preventable.

    As the eye grows from infancy through late adolescence, the
shape of its lens must remain precisely in tune with the focal
length of the eyeball to maintain clear vision.  Given the level
of precision required, it is a wonder that by the end of high
school only 15 percent to 20 percent of students have become
nearsighted.

<Snip>

    "The human eye is beautifully designed for a life of hunting
for game and foraging for fruit on the savannas of Africa",
Torsten N.  Wiesel of Rockefeller University and Elio Raviola of
the Harvard Medical School wrote last year in THE SCIENCES
MAGAZINE.  "It is a less than ideal optical instrument for
creatures who devote their days to grading papers, reading memos,
and consulting THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

<Snip>

    Animal studies have shed light on the matter but have
raised as many questions as they have answered.  In the early
1960s, Washington State University psychologist Francis A.  Young,
a pioneer in the field, put hoods over monkeys, severely
restricting their vision in order to simulate close-work
conditions.  The monkeys became slightly myopic, which Young
attributed to their eyes being constantly focused on the hoods.
Other researchers considered the experiments to be somewhat
inconclusive because of the mildness of the myopia.  **

** [Since this was published, a great deal more information
  concerning both the chicken and primate eye shows much more
  dramatic effect about the effect both the plus and minus lens have
  on the focal state of the eye.  If you consider these studies and
  effort to establish the fact that the natural eye "follows" the
  visual environment, then the "primate" studies would be conclusive.
  To talk exclusively about a "myopia" and ignore to broad general
  question about the fundamental behavior characteristic of all eyes
  is intellectually blind -- in my opinion.  OSB]

<Snip>

    Despite the fact that results of studies of children who have
been given bifocals are highly equivocal, Theodore Grosvenor of
the University of Houston College of Optometry -- a proponent of
the role of bifocals in the prevention of myopia -- insists that
persistent close work causes myopia.  (In what researchers
generally consider to be the most carefully performed study to
date, the two scientists ** disagree on the results.) Some of the
studies have not borne out his hypothesis, he says, because they
were conducted too late.  "Once the eye has started to stretch, it
may be too late to keep it from stretching," he says, explaining
that most of the children in the study had already become myopic.
"The ultimate study would be to put reading glasses on
first-graders before anyone has developed myopia," he says.

** [One of the scientists was Dr.  Francis Young.  His bifocal
  study showed that a combination of under-correction and a
  strong plus stopped the eye's movement into myopia, i.e.,,
  would help the natural eye maintain clear distant vision
  if used when the eye was at the 20/40 to 20/50 level.
  OSB]

Simple Simon,

This thread was adressed to Ace -- and NOT TO YOU.

I do not see why you are getting "huffy" about -- since
you don't know what you are talking about.

Further, people who lurch into vulgar language almost never
have much intelligence about science, or abstract analysis
of the natural eye as a dynamic system.  You DEFINE
your self by your language.

Otis