Echoes of the Past: Drink driving and the eyes

This week’s Echoes of the Past retrospective turns clock back 50 years to June 19, 1964. The week the issue went to press, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment for committing sabotage against the apartheid South Africa government. He was released on February 12 1990 having spent 27 years in prison.

The effects of alcohol on vision made both the news and feature pages that week. The results of the small experiment on the subject were reported in news. Visual acuity was recorded by researchers and tests were carried out on phorias, duction, colour vision, depth perception, visual fields and reaction times. Under the influence of alcohol, general responses were altered, but physical involvement of the eyes was largely unaffected. Only duction tests gave reduced findings, showing less muscle coordination.