Dear Ms Brainy,

This is the "problem" that any scientist, medical doctor,
or optometrist will have:

There is nothing more difficult to take in hand,
more perilous to contuct,
or more uncertain in its success,
than to take the lead in the
introduction of a new order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli: The Prince

Enjoy,

Otis

Yes, but ... you can verify for yourself: It's lovable, old Uncle Otie.

Dear Neil Brooks,

Subject: A "biography" of Bates.

This is a particularly "well-written" biography -

Brief Biography of W.H. Bates, MD

The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, vol 24, pp. 383-4.

BATES, William Horatio, physician, was born in Newark, N.J., Dec. 23,
1860, the son of Charles and Amelia (Halsey) Bates. He was graduated
A.B. at Cornell university in 1881 and received his medical degree at
the college of physicians and surgeons in 1885. Establishing a
practice in New York city, he served for a time as clinical assistant
at the Manhattan Eye and Ear hospital and was attending physician at
Bellevue hospital, 1886-88, the New York Eye infirmary, the Northern
dispensary and the Northeastern dispensary, 1886-98.

He was an instructor in ophthalmology at the New York Post-Graduate
medical school and hospital, 1886-91. In his professional work Bates
at first devoted his attention to the various organs of the head but
finally restricted himself to the eye alone. He resigned his hospital
appointments in 1896 and for several years engaged in experimental
work. After practicing for several years at Grand Forks,
North.Dakota., he returned to New York and was attending physician at
the Harlem hospital during 1907-22.

In his researches Bates proved exerimentally that the normal fixation
of the eye is central, but never stationary, and the technique
developed by him for treating imperfect eye sight without the use of
glasses was based on this principle. This technique was the practical
application of the psychological theory of the field of consciousness,
which is predicated as a point of focus, the so-called point of
apperception, surrounded by a field of increasing vagueness.

His method was to develop central fixation by training the patient in
the dual art of relaxing and focusing the eyes. While carrying on his
experiments he developed a method of photographing the eye to reveal
changes in surface curvature as the eye functioned. The work is
discussed in "A Study of Images Reflected from the Cornea, Iris, Lens,
and Sclera" (N.Y. Med. Jour., May 18, 1918).

His researches on the influence of memory upon the function of vision
are described in "Memory as an Aid to Vision" (N.Y.Med. Jour., May 24,
1919). In 1894, while seeking to determine the therapeutic effect on
the eye of the active principles of the ductless glands, he discovered
the stringent and hemostatic properties of the aqueous extract of the
suprarenal capsule, later commercialized as adrenalin.

In 1896 he announced this discovery in a paper read before the New
York Academy of Medicine. He introduced a new operation for the relief
of persistent deafness in 1886, consisting of puncturing or incising
the ear drum membrane.

He published a book, "Perfect Eyesight Without Glasses" (1919), which
he had to issue at his own expense, expounding his theories which were
for the most part contrary to established ophthalmological practice.
He also wrote articles describing his methods. He was a member of the
New York State Medical Society and was affiliated with the Dutch
Reformed church. He was fond of sports, especially of tennis in which
he won several awards and while living in North Dakota was state
champion. He was an excellent runner and at the advanced age of fifty-
eight was still able to win a prize.

Bates was a quiet, modest man, a serious student of literature and
astronomy, with a fondness for children. He was married three times:
(1) in 1883, to Edith Kitchell of New York city, by whom he had one
son, Halsey Bates; she died in 1886; (2) to Margaret Crawford, who
died in 1927, leaving two children, William Crawford, and Milo Bates,
wife of Charles McComb; and (3) Aug. 9, 1928, to Mrs. Emily (Ackerman)
Lierman, daughter of Robert Ackerman, of Newark, N.J. Bates died in
New York city, July 10, 1931.

- http://www.vision-training.com/Bates/Biography.htm

KH

I only know Dr. Bates from what he wrote, but that's enough to convince most
readers that his observations aren't very repeatable. From PSWG:

"Only a small part of the phenomena of refractive errors is accounted for by
the inaccuracy of focus"

"The lens is not a factor in accommodation"

"Yet it is to-day a perfectly well-known and undisputed fact that many
persons, after the removal of the lens for cataract, are able to see
perfectly at different distances without any change in their glasses."

"All persons with errors of refraction [have], at frequent intervals,
moments of normal vision when their myopia, hypermetropia, or astigmatism
wholly disappears."

"A sudden exposure to strong light, or rapid or sudden changes of light, are
likely to produce imperfect sight in the normal eye, continuing in some
cases for weeks and months.

"Noise is also a frequent cause of defective vision in the normal eye. All
persons see imperfectly when they hear an unexpected loud noise. Familiar
sounds do not lower the vision, but unfamiliar ones always do."

"Women who wear glasses for minor defects of vision often observe that they
are made more or less color-blind by them."

And my favorite: "Some patients are so responsive to mental suggestion that
you can relieve their discomfort, or improve their sight, with almost any
glasses you like to put on them."

-MT

One of the most comprehensive debunking of the Bates' fallacies can be
found in the following article:  http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/bates.html
.
Highly recommended!