Seeing and Human Welfare

The author thinks that the present conditions of living, especially the housing conditions, have deprived modern man of much of the normal illumination to which his race was accustomed during its early development. To illustrate this fact, he states that at noon on a clear day, in direct sunlight, we are exposed to an illumination of about 10,000 foot candles, and in the shadow of a tree under the same conditions we have an illumination of about 1,000 foot candles, whereas indoors, by the aid of a 100 watt tungsten-filament lamp, at a distance of 3 feet, we have an illumination of only about 10 foot candles, and most persons submit to an illumination of even less intensity. Because of these conditions, we are living in a half-seeing world. In spite of the fact that our illumination is far subnormal and usually ill-directed and distributed, our eyes are