Consuming Interest EACH sunny summer about two million of us
spend anything from four shillings to as many pounds in order to gaze at the world through darkly coloured glass.
Optically speaking, most of that money is wasted. Or so I any assured by a leading London optician at Ray- ner's of Bond Street, who has nothing to gain from killing his profitable sunglass trade. Normal eyes, in a temperate climate, do not need any help from the eyeglass industry in order to cope with the rays of an English sun, unless those rays arc reflected off snow, water, the white pages of a book or the bon- net of a motor-car—a point made by Which? in the course of an expert article on this subject in their first issue.
For most adults sun-specs are a harmless vanity, worn for reasons of glamour, disguise, status or habit (men do make passes at girls in dark glasses. And vice versa). But children should never wear sunglasses, unless deliberately advised to do so by an oculist. Sunglasses on a child are like corsets on a teenager. In both cases the pro- vision of artificial support prevents young muscles from strengthening themselves. A direc- tor of Rayner's, who feels strongly about this, tells me that junior sun-specs are not stocked by any of the Rayner shops.
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