Dr. Arlt – Ophthalmologist suggests the eye can accommodate by lengthening of the eyeball.
Modern doctors have proven the eye lengthens during accommodation as the lens changes shape.
Dr. Arlt – Eye Doctor suggests the eye can accommodate by lengthening of the eyeball.
Staring Relieved By Treatment
By Emily C. Lierman
A woman who had been suffering from pain and imperfect sight was sent to me for treatment. She suffered more at business than at any other time, and glasses did not help her much. Having charge of a tea room she was continually greeting patrons and placing them at tables. At times she seemed to have no trouble at all with her eyes and was able to read any part of the menu to patrons who asked her to do so, without using her glasses, which she wore most of the time. She had worn glasses off and on for four years and disliked them exceedingly, because they did not become her. Shortly before coming to me, she was told by an eye specialist that she would have to wear bi-focals. She was ready then to try most anything rather than wear them.
Her vision for the test card was 15/20 in both eyes, but with fine print and ordinary type she did not do so well. I began treating her by having her palm and while her eyes were closed and covered, I explained that some patients were not helped by palming, but if that were so in her case, we would try something else. She had a good memory for objects and people’s faces, but her memory for names was not so good.
I asked her to describe to me all the sections of the tea room that she could remember. In this way, her memory and imagination would improve for other things which were not remembered or imagined so well. She described in detail how the tables were arranged and the design of the table silver. She could not remember the pattern of the tablecloths and napkins, although when she purchased the table linens, she purposely selected a certain pattern because it appealed to her. This worried her, but I explained that after she had learned how to relax under unfavorable conditions, she would be able to remember such details. I directed her to keep her eyes closed for more than half an hour, at times keeping perfectly still without speaking to me.
(I watch patients very closely while they are palming to see whether they are in a comfortable position and if not I try to arrange it so. I find that when the knees are crossed, the position soon brings on an unconscious strain; therefore I direct the patient to keep the knees uncrossed. Then I arrange the feet so that they are comfortably placed either on the floor or on a footstool or hassock. The patient is usually most comfortable in an armchair and if the arms of the chair are not upholstered, I place a cushion under one elbow in such a way that the patient is most comfortable. This brings the patient in a position leaning over to the right side or to the left, so I try to have the patient change the position while relaxing by reversing the cushion to the opposite arm of the chair. With children I manage a little differently, especially when not tall enough to rest their feet on a footstool.)
It is best to place the cushion on the lap or a table for both left and right elbows to rest upon. This keeps good posture, evenly aligned and relaxed body, shoulders, neck, head.
The test card which I used for this patient had an extra line of letters smaller than the 10-line letters, which are read by the normal eye at ten feet. After this woman had palmed sufficiently, I removed the foot stool and while her eyes were still closed I told her to stand up and to start swaying her body slowly with an easy sway of the body from left to right. Then I told her to open her eyes and look from one edge of the Snellen test card to the other and to tell me what the letters were as I pointed toward them. She read every letter of the test card with each eye separately without any difficulty whatever.
The patient was so excited over her sudden improvement in sight and the relaxation which she felt of her whole body, that she thought one lesson was all that would be necessary for her. I thought that the improvement during her first treatment was only temporary and told her so. However, I was willing to give the patient the benefit of the doubt and told her that if her vision remained normal and she felt no more strain or discomfort, that it surely would not be necessary for her to take another lesson.
Early the next morning my telephone rang and it was she, explaining her discomfort and strain and begging me to see her again. I was surprised that the change came so soon. I thought that she would have at least a few days of relaxation and freedom from strain, but she had been at a bridge party after seeing me and something had happened to her during the course of the evening which brought her quickly to me the next day.
I feared that it would worry her if she could not do so well during her second treatment with the large Snellen test card, so we worked together with another part of the method. This time we used fine print. I sat directly in front of her as she looked at the little card with fine print, but it was pitiful to see her staring at it, trying to read.
Staring is such a common thing and most people stare unconsciously at times. A great many people stare unconsciously most of the time and cause much or all of the discomfort which soon brings on chronic trouble with the eyes and sometimes causes blindness. If school teachers were instructed to remind pupils at intervals during the daily sessions of the permanent punishment to their eyes as the result of staring, it would be avoided in time and less eye glasses would be prescribed for school children.
People do not wait until they are physically tired out before they sit or lie down to rest, but most people do not know what to do e about their eyes when they are mentally tired. In some cases just closing the eyes frequently for a second or two is all that is necessary to retain good vision for life. This I know to be true because my grandmother who lived until she was 79 years of age did not wear glasses at all until she was over 70 years of age and then they were not fitted by an oculist, but were purchased at the price of ten cents from a solicitor who came to her door. She used them only when threading a fine needle. Without glasses, she could see fine stitches while sewing, whether the thread was black or white. What I particularly remember was that she blinked her eyes often, which I thought at the time was a mistake or an affliction, but since I have become Dr. Bates’ assistant, I know that she was doing the natural thing.
If all mothers would watch their babies as they begin to notice things and avoid any possible stare by just attracting the baby’s attention to various things instead of just one thing, I believe that a great deal of squint could be avoided, as well as other eye troubles. Of course there are squint cases which have been brought on through illness or injury of some kind, but even these cases can be eventually cured by teaching the patient how to shift and blink and avoid the stare.
I informed this patient that her principal trouble was staring and that I noticed it more on her second visit than I did at the first. She was told to close her eyes and while they were closed to remember a white cloud or a piece of white cloth, such as her handkerchief, which was in her lap at the time, then to open her eyes and instead of looking directly at the fine black print she was to look at the white spaces, and then close her eyes again and imagine them as white as her handkerchief.
She said she could remember a white cloud much better while her eyes were closed. While looking at her handkerchief she could see it perfectly white, but when she closed her eyes the memory of the white handkerchief was not so good. She said the whiteness became sort of gray or a soiled white, which made her uncomfortable while her eyes were closed. This proves again that Dr. Bates is right in saying that an imperfect memory of anything brings on strain and imperfect sight.
At first she could not do so well with the white spaces of fine print as she held the card six or eight inches from her eyes. We tried the other extreme then by placing the card close to her forehead, too close for her to read the fine print, even if she had no trouble with her eyes. She was directed to move the card slowly, slightly touching her forehead over the bridge of her nose and opening her eyes with the slow movement of the card and closing them again. In this way she got flashes of the white spaces, and as she closed her eyes the memory of the white spaces improved so that when she drew the card away finally after practicing this method for ten or fifteen minutes she could read the fine print at six inches as well as she could at twelve inches. Again she became excited as she did the day before and felt that at last she had grasped the idea of avoiding the stare and that she would not need to come again.
Two days later she telephoned me for another treatment, saying that she could not retain the good sight that she had while practicing with me. When she came for her third treatment, I tested her sight with the large test card, using various cards that I had. She did very well with the two cards she had read at her first visit, but with the strange cards her vision was the same as it was during her first visit, 15/20.
I decided to try a different method of treatment by having her imagine that my room was her tea room. A desk and small table with a few chairs were imagined to be tables at which she was to place imaginary patrons who were coming toward her. She told me that it was customary for her to have a napkin in her hand which served sometimes to wipe the top of a glass or to re-arrange a plate on the table. I gave her a towel to hold which served as a napkin and told her to shift from the napkin to the imaginary table, and in this way she learned how to shift and blink as she would have to do to retain her relaxation while at work in the tea room. She remembered this lesson very well and did her work in the tea room better for a few days.
When I saw her again, which was in less than a week’s time, she said that she got along splendidly in the mornings, but in the afternoon after she had been busy for part of the day, she felt a strain coming on as usual, which caused a great deal of tension at the back of her head.
The method that we used that day at her fourth visit was used again at her last visit, the fifth treatment, when she did so well that I thought it unnecessary for her to come again. There were several pictures hanging on the wall of my room distributed in different places. I told her to imagine that she was in her stockroom where canned goods were stored. She explained how there were rows of canned tomatoes, which had the picture of a red tomato on the label. Then there were other shelves arranged with cans of peas, which, of course, were green. There were shelves in another section of the room with canned vegetables, with various colored labels.
I told her to stand in the center of the room and to sway her body from left to right, blinking as she swayed and shifted from the canned peas to the canned tomatoes and other canned goods with various colored labels. She remarked that if she could keep up that good feeling of relaxation and freedom from tension and strain while she was practicing in the stockroom of her establishment, she would be amply repaid for the time she spent with me.
Her report over the telephone a few days later was favorable. She said that she had taken her car with friends and had driven many miles over a mountain trail, and if it had not been for her ability to blink and shift, she could not possibly have avoided an accident which would have thrown her car over the cliffs. I had told her to occasionally shift from the speedometer to the center of the road ahead and vice versa. I told her to remind herself continuously that it was not necessary to hold on very tight to the steering wheel, but to hold it loosely, which meant relaxation.
She said that her storeroom, she believed, was responsible for the absence of strain and tension late in the afternoon, when before she had seen me there was not a day that she was free from pain in the back of her head. She wore a fancy white apron during business hours, but always in the little pocket of her apron rested the small test card and a small fine print card which she would use when she had the opportunity to do so, practicing shifting from the white spaces of the fine type to sections of the room, which helped her to see things clearly and without strain. Carry a small rock or piece of jewelry, any colorful, shiny object with a lot of fine details. Shift on the details, colors, sparkles. Relax, blink, let the head, neck, shoulders relax, think something happy. This keeps close and distant vision clear.
I hope this article will be of benefit to those who do close work in offices, as well as people who do similar work to that of my patient.