THE CURE OF IMPERFECT SIGHT BY TREATMENT WITHOUT GLASSES

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Portrait of Ferdinand von Arlt intro pages

FIG. 	  	CHAPTER

1. 	Pantagonians 	1
2. 	African Pygmies 	1
3. 	Moros from the Philippines 	1
4. 	Diagram of the hypermetropic, emmetropic and myopic eyeballs 	1
5. 	The eye as a camera 	1
6. 	Mexican Indians 	1
7. 	Ainus, the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan 	1

8. 	The usual method of using the retinoscope 	2

9. 	Diagrams of the images of Purkinje 	3
10. 	Diagram by which Helmholtz illustrated the theory of accommodation 	3
11. 	Portrait of Thomas Young 	3
12. 	Portrait of Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz 	3

13. 	Demonstration upon the eye of a rabbit that the interior oblique muscle is an essential factor in accommodation 	4
14. 	Demonstration upon the eye of a carp that the superior oblique muscle is essential to accommodation 	4
15. 	Demonstration upon the eye of a rabbit that the production of refractive errors is dependent upon the action of the external muscles 	4
16. 	Demonstration upon the eye of a fish that the production of myopic and hypermetropic refraction is dependent upon the action of the extrinsic muscles 	4
17. 	Production and relief of mixed astigmatism in the eye of a carp 	4
18. 	Demonstration upon the eyeball of a rabbit that the obliques lengthen the visual axis in myopia 	4
19. 	Demonstration upon the eye of a carp that the recti shorten the visual axis in hypermetropia 	4
20. 	Lens pushed out of the axis of vision 	4
21. 	Rabbit with lens removed 	4
22. 	Experiment upon the eye of a cat, demonstrating that the 4th nerve which supplies only the superior oblique muscle, is just as much a nerve of accommodation as the 3rd, and that the superior oblique muscle which it supplies is a muscle of accommodation 	4
23. 	Pithing a fish preparatory to operating upon its eyes 	4

24. 	Arrangements for photographing images reflected from the eyeball 	5
25. 	Arrangements for holding the head of the subject steady while images were being photographed 	5
26. 	Image of electric filament ont he front of the lens 	5
27. 	Images of the electric filament reflected simultaneously from the cornea and lens 	5
28. 	Image of electric filament upon the cornea 	5
29. 	Image of electric filament on the front of the sclera 	5
30. 	Images on the side of the sclera 	5
31. 	Multiple images upon the front of the lens 	5
32. 	Reflection of the electric filament from the iris 	5
33. 	WHY that the back of the lens does not change during accommodation 	5

34. 	Straining to see at the near-point produces hypermetropia 	9
35. 	Myopia produced by unconscious strain to see at the distance is increased by conscious strain 	9
36. 	Immediate production of myopia and myopic astigmatism in eyes previously normal by strain to see at the distance 	9
37. 	Myopic astigmatism comes and goes according as the subject looks at distant objects with or without strain. 	9
38. 	Patient who has had the lens of the right eye removed for cataract produces changes in the refraction of this eye by strain 	9
39. 	A family group strikingly illustrating the effect of the mind upon the vision 	9
40. 	Myopes who never went to school, or read in the Subway 	9
41. 	One of the many thousands of patients cured of errors of refraction by the methods presented in this book 	9

42. 	Palming 	12
43. 	Patient with atrophy of the optic nerve gets flashes of improved vision after palming 	12
44. 	Paralysis of the seventh nerve cured by palming 	12
45. 	Glaucoma cured by palming 	12

46. 	Woman with normal vision looking directly at the sun 	17
47. 	Woman, 37 & child, 4, both looking directly at the sun without discomfort 	17
48. 	Focussing the rays of the sun upon the eye of a patientby means 	17
49. 	Specimen of diamond type 	17
50. 	Photographic type reduction 	17

51. 	Operating without anaesthetics 	19
52. 	Neuralgia relieved by palming and the memory of black 	19

53. 	Voluntary production of squint by strain to see 	21

54. 	Case of divergent vertical squint cured by eye education 	22
55. 	Temporary cure of squint by memory of a black period. 	22

56. 	Face-rest designed by Kallmann, a German optician 	26

PREFACE 

This book aims to be a collection of facts and not of theories, and insofar as it is, I do not fear successful contradiction. When explanations have been offered it has been done with considerable trepidation, because I have never been able to formulate a theory that would withstand the test of the facts either in my possession at the time, or accumulated later. The same is true of the theories of every other man, for a theory is only a guess, and you cannot guess or imagine the truth. No one has ever satisfactorily answered the question, "Why ?" as most scientific men are well aware, and I did not feel that I could do better than others who had tried and failed. One cannot even draw conclusions safely from facts, because a conclusion is very much like a theory, and may be disproved or modified by facts accumulated later. In the science of ophthalmology, theories, often stated as facts, have served to obscure the truth and throttle investigation for more than a hundred years. The explanations of the phenomena of sight put forward by Young, von Graefe, Helmholtz and Donders have caused us to ignore or explain away a multitude of facts which otherwise would have led to the discovery of the truth about errors of refraction and the consequent prevention of an incalculable amount of human misery. 
In presenting my experimental work to the public, I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mrs. E. C. Lierman, whose co-operation during four years of arduous labor and prolonged failure made it possible to carry the work to a successful issue. I would be glad, further, to acknowledge my debt to others who aided me with suggestions, or more direct assistance, but am unable to do so, as they have requested me not to mention their names in this connection. 
As there has been a considerable demand for the book from the laity, an effort has been made to present the subject in such a way as to be intelligible to persons unfamiliar with ophthalmology.  --W.H. Bates, M.D., 1860-1931 

THE CURE OF IMPERFECT SIGHT BY  TREATMENT WITHOUT GLASSES