Eyewear for Nearsighted 19th Lady Naturalists

Well, by gum, it's happened: I got my first pair of bifocals for "the relief of weak, dim and imperfect vision" as advertised above. Yes, I want "to read...with comfort by gas or candlelight." Who doesn't? And because I want to know what did 19th century lady naturalists do when their youthful eyesight began to fail I researched corrective eyewear historians! (this is a branch of historian).

[Short-sightedness is reaching epidemic proportions.  It's reading that has f&*ed us all up. By 2050, scientists predict more than 4.7 billion people, roughly half of the global population, will be nearsighted.]

Attagirl. Look away from the book.

How should Nan tell her friend to stop reading? Alice, think of your eyes, darling. 

According to the American Academy of Opthalmology's Timeline of Glasses, "in the 1800s eyeglass were considered evidence of old age and infirmity. As a result, people preferred to wear spectacles only when they were needed. This was especially true for women (italics mine. Sideeye also mine). Those who could afford it found hand-held designs such as the lorgnette to avoid having glasses on their faces."

Lorgnette incidentally comes from the French lorgner, "to take a sidelong look at." Ahem.

Are you looking at my lorgnette?

Yes.