
It is not only in the 20th and 21st centuries that people have had concerns about their eye health. These days, the time we spend looking at computer and phone screens is believed to be problematic (and we are encouraged, indeed, to look away from screens for 20 seconds every 20 minutes). In Victorian times, however, reading itself – in the wake of the development of mass printing of newspapers and books – was considered to put people’s eye health at risk.
This small Object of the Month, dating from Victorian times and found in a field in Eynsham, is a (now mottled) white ceramic dish that would have played its part in trying to treat 19th-century eye problems. The dark blue lettering on the edge of the dish reads ‘Singleton’s Eye Ointment’, and this is precisely what the dish would have contained.
Singleton’s Eye Ointment was marketed widely during the Victorian era as a cure for a wide variety of eye conditions. There were lots of claims but no real evidence that it worked for any of them – and, actually, some of the ingredients included in similar potions at the time were decidedly toxic if used in excess. However, somebody with sore eyes in Eynsham must, once upon a time, have decided that it was worth a try!