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The efficacy of the method of treating imperfect sight without glasses
has been demonstrated in thousands of cases, not only in my own
practice but in that of many persons of whom I may not even have
heard; for almost all patients when they are cured proceed to cure
others. At a social gathering one evening a lady told me that she had
met a number of my patients; but when she mentioned their names, I
found that I did not remember any of them, and said so.
  "That is because you cured them by proxy," she said. You didn't
directly cure Mrs. Jones or Mrs. Brown, but you cured Mrs. Smith and
Mrs. Smith cured the other ladies. You didn't treat Mr. and Mrs.
Simpkins, or Mr. Simpkins' mother and brother, but you may remember
that you cured Mr. Simpkins' boy of squint, and he cured the rest of
the family."

In schools where the Snellen test card was used to prevent and cure
imperfect sight, the children, after they were cured themselves, often
took to the practice of ophthalmology with the greatest enthusiasm and
success, curing their fellow students, their parents and their
friends. They made a kind of game of the treatment, and the progress
of each school was watched with the most intense interest by all the
children. On a bright day, when the patients saw well, there was a
great rejoicing, and on a dark day there was corresponding depression.
One girl cured twenty-six children in six months; another cured twelve
in three months, a third developed quite a varied ophthalmological
practice and did things of which older and more experienced
practitioners might well have been proud. Going to the school which
she attended one day, I asked this girl about her sight, which had
been very imperfect. She replied that it was now very good, that her
headaches were quite gone. I tested her sight and found it normal.
Then another child whose sight had also been very poor spoke up.
  "I can see all right too," she said. "Emily" - indicating girl No.
1 - "cured me."
  "Indeed!" I replied. "How did she do that?"
The second girl explained that Emily had had her read the card, which
she could not see at all from the back of the room, at a distance of a
few feet. The next day she had moved it a little further away, and so
on, until the patient was able to read it from the back of the room,
just as the other children did. Emily now told her to cover the right
eye and read the card with her left, and both girls were considerably
upset to find that the uncovered eye was apparently blind. The school
doctor was consulted and said that nothing could be done. The eye had
been blind from birth and no treatment would do any good.

Nothing daunted, however, Emily undertook the treatment. She told the
patient to cover her good eye and go up close to the card, and at a
distance of a foot or less that she could read even the small letters.
The little practitioner then proceeded confidently as with the other
eye, and after many months of practice the patient became the happy
possessor of normal vision in both eyes. The case had, in fact, been
simply one of high myopia, and the school doctor, not being a
specialist, had not detected the difference between this condition and
blindness.

In the same classroom, there had been a little girl with congenital
cataract, but on the occasion of my visit the defect had disappeared.
This, too, it appeared, was Emily's doing. The school doctor had said
that there was no help for this eye except through operation, and as
the sight of the other eye was pretty good, he fortunately did not
think it necessary to urge such a course. Emily accordingly took the
matter in hand. She had the patient stand close to the card, and at
that distance it was found that she could not see even the big C.
Emily now held the card between the patient and the light and moved it
back and forth. At a distance of three or four feet this movement
could be observed indistinctly by the patient. The card was then moved
farther away, until the patient became able to see it move at ten feet
and to see some of the larger letters indistinctly at a less distance.
Finally, after six months, she became able to read the card with the
bad eye as well as with the good one. After testing her sight and
finding it normal in both eyes, I said to Emily:
  "You are a splendid doctor. You beat them all. Have you done
anything else?"
The child blushed, and turning to another of her classmates, said:
  "Mamie, come here."
Mamie stepped forward and I looked at her eyes. There appeared to be
nothing wrong with them.
  "I cured her," said Emily.
  "What of?" I inquired.
  "Cross eyes," replied Emily.
  "How," I asked, with growing astonishment.
Emily described a procedure very similar to that adopted in the other
cases. Finding that the sight of the crossed eye was very poor, so
much so, indeed, that poor Mamie could see practically nothing with
it, the obvious course of action seemed to he to be the restoration of
its sight; and, never having read any medical literature she did not
know that this was impossible. So she went to it. She had Mamie cover
her good eye and practice the bad one at home and at school, until at
last the sight became normal and the eye straight. The school doctor
had wanted to have the eye operated upon, I was told, but fortunately
Mamie was "scared" and would not consent. And here she was with two
perfectly good, straight eyes.
  "Anything else?" I inquired, when Mamie's case had been disposed
of. Emily blushed again, and said:
  "Here's Rose. Her eyes used to hurt her all the time, and she
couldn't see anything on the blackboard. Her headaches used to be so
bad that she had to stay away from school every once in a while. The
doctor gave her glasses; but they didn't help her, and she wouldn't
wear them. When you told us the card would help our eyes I got busy
with her. I had her read the card close up, and then I moved it
farther away, and now she can see all right, and her head doesn't ache
any more. She comes to school every day, and we all thank you very
much."

This was a case of compound hypermetropic astigmatism. Such stories
might be multiplied indefinitely. Emily's astonishing record cannot,
it is true, be duplicated, but less cures by cured patients have been
very numerous and serve to show that the benefits of the method of
preventing and curing defects of vision in the schools which is
presented in this number of Better Eyesight would be far-reaching. Not
only errors of refraction would be cured, but many more serious
defects; and not only the children would be helped, but their families
and friends also.

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