Contact Glasses

Members of the Optometrical Society of the City of New York peered inquisitively last week at Grace Robin, 22, near-sighted Brooklyn stenographer. Pleasantly but glassily Grace Robin peered back. She did not appear to be wearing eyeglasses. yet she was, right against her eyeballs-- contact glasses, such as had never been seen by the New York Society.

For years ophthalmologists have been placing glass shields on eyeballs to brace bulging corneas though not to correct vision. In 1889 Dr. A. Mueller of Kiel, Germany, succeeded in grinding a pair of shields to the curves needed to correct his own nearsightedness. Lack of money made him drop further experiments.

Last September Dr. Leopold Heine of Kiel reported to the International Ophthalmological Congress at Amsterdam that for three years he had been prescribing contact glasses to correct sight defects. His report stimulated the New York demonstration last week.

Dr. Heine emphasized that contact glasses must be fitted only by highly experienced ophthalmologists, for the danger of an ill-trained man injuring his patient's eyes is great. For fitting such glasses 39 lenses are necessary. The only firm which grinds these highly exact lenses is the Zeiss Works at Jena. The lenses must be curved on their inner (concave) side almost but not exactly to match the curve of the eyeballs. Nor may their optical curve be exactly that of ordinary eyeglasses. Contact lenses are held against the eyeballs by the capillary suction of tear water. Thin though the layer of tears is, it has an optical effect which the ophthalmologist must allow for in writing his prescription.

When correctly fitted, contact glasses are almost invisible. Because they follow every movement of the eyeball, they furnish a wider field of vision and a clearer image than do ordinary eyeglasses.

There are U. S. ophthalmologists sufficiently skilled to write such prescriptions. But none, so far as could be learned last week, owns a complete set of 39 test lenses (cost $25 a lens); and most consider contact glasses foolish, unnecessary. Dr. Heine's customers have been people with athletic or cosmetic reasons. Miss Robin's reason for wearing the lenses last week was to accommodate the New York optometrists. She was in constant fear that the glasses might break on her eyes.

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