Ophthalmology: Don't Look Now

A total eclipse is due next week, and U.S. medical authorities are as alarmed as a tribe of ignorant savages when the sun is blacked out by the moon. The experts' worry has nothing to do with superstition. They know that after every total eclipse there are thousands of cases of severe damage to the eyes, and some cases of blindness, from careless gazing. Last week such disparate organizations as the American Medical Association, Manhattan's Hayden Planetarium and New York State's Department of Education were busily spreading identical warnings: "Don't look directly at the eclipse." What makes...