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From: suhre@trwrba.UUCP (Maurice E. Suhre)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Reading in bad light
Message-ID: <1528@trwrba.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Jul-85 15:31:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: trwrba.1528
Posted: Mon Jul 29 15:31:15 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 3-Aug-85 02:22:22 EDT
Organization: TRW EDS, Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 16

The recent discussion about Bach's vision prompted me to post.

This business about vision being damaged by reading in poor light
has always seemed like an old wive's tale to me.  If you try to 
take a picture in inadequate light, you get underexposed film.
No damage to the camera.  Similarly (it seems to me), the retina
receives an inadequate amount of light to form a sharp image.
It is not clear that having the pupil dilated "trying" to see
is harmful.  The lack of light on the retina appears not to be
harmful, otherwise we'd be in real trouble while we were sleeping!
Anybody know what's really happening?  Is reading in dim light
harmful, or just an old wive's tale?

Maurice

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