Los Banos Rotary Club History
Optometrist Explains Functions Of Glasses

Dr. Eldon Rosenow, Modesto optometrist who maintains business offices in Los Banos, Tuesday gave members of the Los Banos Rotary Club a quick briefing in the mechanical principles and functioning of the human eye and the corrective functioning of eye glasses.

Comparing the eye to a camera, Dr. Rosenow explained how the visual light image passes through the lens of the eye and focuses the image on the retina, where it is transferred to the nerves which carry the image interpretation to the brain where it is mentally interpreted on the basis of past visual experiences.

Illustrating his talk with blackboard drawings, Dr. Rosenow explained how eye glasses are ground to different thicknesses and curvatures to compensate for natural eye defects such as near sightedness, far sightedness and stigmatism. Also why, in a person's later years, vision becomes blurred and requires eye glasses to compensate for the gradual failure of the human eye lens to automatically bring an image into sharp focus.

The doctor concluded his talk by answering questions from his listeners. Among other questions was one as to whether or not television is harmful to one's eyesight. The doctor stated that the only harmful or tiring effect would be from continually focusing of the eye at the same distance for long periods of time, and he recommended that the television fan form a habit of occasionally looking away from the screen momentarily which would relax the eye and avoid any possibility of strain.

The speaker was introduced by program chairman Mike Dambrosio.

November 21, 1952

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