Dr. James Alexander Wilson, assistant surgeon of the Opthalmic Institute, Glasgow, published an analysis of 1,500 cases of myopia in the British Medical Journal, p. 395, August 29, 1914. His methods are not above criticism, and too much importance should not be attached to his results, which show that in 58% of the cases heredity can be credited with the myopia of the patient. In 12% of the cases it was due to inflammation of the cornea (keratitis) while in the remaining 30% no hereditary influence could be proved, but various reasons made him feel certain that in many cases it existed. The distribution of myopia by trades and professions among his patients is suggestive: 65% of the cases among school children showed myopic heredity; 63% among housewives and domestic servants; 68% among shop and factory works; 60% among clerks and typists; 60% among laborers and miners. If environment really played an active part, one would not expect to find this similarity in percentages between laborers and clerks, between housewives and schoolteachers, etc.

The Influence of Unfavourable Home Environment and Defective Physique on the Intelligence of School Children. By David Heron. Eugenics Laboratory (London), Memoir Series No. VIII.