Motion Picture Story Magazine (Feb 1914 - Sep 1916 (assorted issues))

106 MOTION PICTURE MAGAZINE Experiments by Professor Knight Dunlap in the psychological laboratories of Johns Hopkins University convince yon that even the slight flicker which occasionally appears on .Motion Pictures tones up the eyesight and makes it more acute. It is unwise, perhaps, for some persons to sew, read or attempt "to use their eyes at close range on a moving train, motor-car, fast boat or aeroplane. The flickering lights and shadows from this vibration play high jinks with your retina. Why? Because the peep-holes, muscles and lens of your eyes must be constantly changing their focus. This is not the case with Moving Pictures. In the movies the spectator sits from twelve to several hundred feet away from the screen upon which the motion photographs are thrown. At that distance the focus of the eye changes but little, no matter how7 much flicker there may be. In fact, a little flicker is beneficial, because it keeps the eye-muscles from becoming sluggish, worn out and unadaptable to change. One scholar maintains that the Germans have become better observers than other nations, and wTere even ahead of Americans until a short time ago, because the "nickelodeons," or movies, swarmed in all the Teutonic cities twelve years ago, five or six years before the picture parlor furore spread over the United States. Undoubtedly, children and grownups have become more observant and better educated in many respects since the movies have acquired such a vogue. Kecent psychological tests made upon children immediately after their exit from the Moving Picture theaters prove that they distinguish colors more acutely, recognize form and shape more sharply and remember figures, sizes, and other visual differences better than they did before they went in to see the pictures. They surpassed in tests made with children who have not visited the movies, but were nevertheless subjected to the same kind of excitement (Contin uvd by witnessing a melodrama actually performed by players in flesh and blood. Those instances of weak eyes, astigmatism, near-sightedness, granulated eyelids, and other troubles of the optical apparatus commonly often attributed by careless observers and rash logicians to motion photographs, upon fair and thoro investigation are soon traced to associated ailments of the body in general. Twitching of the eyelids is erroneously blamed upon visits to the movies. I w7as recently required, as the chairman of the scientific research committee of a national organization, to investigate and run down the cause of every instance of nervous, twitching eyelids. In a large American city, where there are several hundred Moving Picture theaters and half as many eye specialists, it was soon made clear that not one true example of eye-twitching could be blamed upon Motion Pictures. Many of these patients soon discovered that twitching eyelids meant the need of eye-glasses. Others suffered with nervous defects, with which the twitching was associated. Painful eyes, swollen eyes, reddened eyeballs, watery eyes and sties are often Nature's roadside sign-posts which indicate that the eye specialist should visit the scene and make visual tests. Spectacles and eye-glasses wall frequently be found to correct the irritations. One innocent gentleman, who prefers the movies to grand opera, came and asked if "dark spots w^hich are alwa}Ts dancing before the eyes" are not due to the moving photoplay. Of course, he wras misled by hearing all of the hullabaloo about the "movies injuring the eyes." He was given to understand at once that spots before the e3res are a sign of many different internal disorders, such as blood deficiencies, excessive pumping by the heart, disturbances of the brain and spinal marrow, and the accumulation of microbic poisons in the lymph stream. on page 154)