Race, Sex and Environment in the Development of Myopia.

THE presence of a large Jewish population in the East End of London offers exceptional facilities for the study of racial differences in errors of refraction by making comparison between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations. There is also the fact that the Jewish boys in the East End do an exceptionally large am-ount of close work, which affords an opportunity of testing the effect of close work on the production of myopia by investigating whether an undue percentage of myopes is developed among the Jewish boys as they go through their school life. It will not be out of place to say a few words about social conditions among Jews in the East End. As immigration into this country has practically ceased since 1914, the children attending the elementary schools are almost all born in this country, though in the vast majority of cases their parents are of Polish or Russian origin. The children are brought up in very much the same way as the non-Jewish child population, except in the case of the boys, who in addition to attending the ordinary elementary day school, also attend classes for the study of Hebrew for two and a half to three hours every evening (except Friday and usually also Saturday when there is no attendance, and Sunday, when attendance is in the morning). The conditions under which these studies are conducted are by no means ideal. The vast majority of the classes are held in rooms and buildings that ought never to be used as school rooms. In addition the lighting conditions are often exceedingly bad. (Much of this is being rectified owing to the activities of the fairly recently established Jewish Health Organization of Great Britain.) Those acquainted with the Hebrew alphabet know how tiring its letters, are on account of the alternate thick and thin strokes, and the little difference (such as a slightly longer thin stroke) that exists between one letter and another. Difficult as these conditions are they are made still more difficult by the fact that the books in use are almost all badly printed, poor type on poor paper; and as the schools are supported by voluntary contributions they