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By M. H. Stuart, M.D.
Moultrie, Ga.
____
We are greatly indebted to Dr. Stuart for sending us this remarkable
story of his own cure and that of his patients, all of which was
accomplished without personal assistance by means of the information
presented in this magazine.
____
Some sixteen years ago, when working as a stenographer, I developed
indigestion and became extremely nervous, one of my symptoms being a
tension in the spinal cord between the shoulder blades which was
extremely uncomfortable. In the late afternoon and evening I would
become so nervous that I could scarcely sit still, and I have walked
five miles into the country and back again to get relief. I tried
dieting for the indigestion, but after two months failed to get any
relief. A medical student then suggested that the trouble might be due
to my eyes. I went to an oculist, who fitted me with glasses, and all
my troubles ceased.
The glasses given to me were convex 0.25, axis 90. A few years later,
when I was in New York doing post-graduate work at the Polyclinic,
they were changed to concave 0.25, axis 180, my refraction having
changed from hypermetropia to myopia. In succeeding years the myopic
astigmatism increased to concave 0.75, axis 180, and finally, after I
had worn glasses for some fourteen years, to concave 1.00, axis 180.
The last correction I had worn for about two years when I discarded
glasses for good.
Slight as my error of refraction was, I was not able to leave off my
glasses for more than an hour or two without suffering from
nervousness and the feeling of tenseness in the spinal cord alluded to
above. At other times I was perfectly comfortable except for the last
year or two, during which I had so much to do that I suffered at times
from the old nervous trouble. I had no pain in my head or eyes, but
the trouble in my back was so bad last fall that I had to have the
services of a masseur in order to do my work.
Five years ago I first read about Dr. Bates' experiments upon the eye
muscles of animals. While interested I was not prepared to abandon the
accepted teachings on the subject, and I waited to hear more. Recently
I read, in the May (1920) number of 'Better Eyesight', Dr. Arnau's
story of how his headaches were cured, and I was so impressed by it
that I determined to try the relaxation method upon myself. I palmed
for five minutes and then read the card three times with each eye as
far as I could without effort. I did this six times a day for five
days, and at the end of this time I had gained a very decided degree
of relaxation. I had, of course, discarded glasses, and although this
caused me a little discomfort at first, I was able, about a week
later, to perform, without them, three tonsilectomies and one
operation for cataract, and to remove two blind eyes. At the same time
I went through my daily routine of treating ten to thirty patients,
examining eyes, ears, noses and thorats, much of which work requires
extra good vision. At noon I lay down to rest as usual and read the
Atlanta paper. At night I read the Moultrie daily paper and anything
else that I wanted to.
After the first five days of systematic relaxation I have never done
anything in a routine way for myself, but if I feel nervous, or my
eyes feel drawn, I swing twenty times and palm. In this way I am
always able to get relief. Another method of gaining relaxation that I
have resorted to is to look at an imaginary period in any dark,
distant object. In this pinewoods district there are thousands of
stumps, many of which have been burned and blackened. The third day
after I discarded my glasses I had to drive about twenty-eight miles,
and whenever my eyes felt drawn I would look in an easy relaxed way at
a small point on one of these stumps and always got relaxation.
Nearly every afternoon at half past four I go out for a game of golf,
and often I palm before going, as I find it gives me better control of
my nervous system, and enables me to play a more consistent game.
I was so pleased with the results of the new treatment in my own case
that I have since taught central fixation to about forty of my
patients, and in only about two did I fail to improve the vision at
the first sitting.
The following are some of my more notable cases.
Mr. S, an automobile mechanic, had been mentally deranged for two
weeks, following an attack of flu, after which he gradually became
rational, only to find that he saw double and his vision was
imperfect, in each eye. At the first examination he read with his
right 20/120, and with the left 20/60. I suggested that he palm at
least six times a day for five minutes, and on the second day he was
greatly improved, reading with the right eye 20/80, left 20/40. On the
third day he read with the right eye 20/40, left 20/30, an increase of
vision in the right eye of 200 per cent, and in the left of 100 per
cent. He is now at work, and when, occasionally, he has to lay off, it
is not on account of any trouble with his eyes, but because of
weakness in his knees.
A year ago Mr. B consulted me about the sight of his right eye, the
left having been blind for years. His vision was 10/40, and could not
be improved by any lens. I advised him to have the left eye removed,
since it was a menace to the other eye. He would not consent to this
and I did not see him again until May 5, of this year, when he came to
my office practically blind in his right eye from sympathetic
opthalmia. At one foot he could only count fingers. I advised the
immediate removal of the blind eye and of a few teeth that had pus
about them; but I could not promise that his vision would be saved.
That afternoon I removed the eye, and the following day I was
gratified to find that he could count fingers at three feet. I sent
him home with some large letters to use for the practice of central
fixation, and by the fifteenth he was able to count fingers at five
feet. I then told him how to practice the universal swing, and on the
twenty-second he could count fingers at seven feet. On the twenty-
ninth he could read the small type on the 20 line of the test card at
four inches, whereas he had been entirely unable to see them
previously. He states that he can now see the small chickens running
about near his feet, and can see small cotton plants seven feet away.
I am confident that in a year, or some such matter, he will have
sufficient vision to attend to the necessary work of his farm.
I have treated three cases of squint, all of them with success. One of
them, Delia S, aged twelve, came to me on May 15, with her right eye
turned in to such a degree that the cornea was partly hidden. The
sight of this eye was so imperfect that at three feet she could only
count fingers. WIth her left eye she could read 20/30. She was told to
palm, and when she returned on May 24 she was able, with the squinting
eye, to count fingers at six feet, twice as far as at her first visit,
and the eye was straighter. On June 5 she came again, and counted
fingers at eight feet, an increase of vision since the beginning of
700 per cent. On July 3, while I was writing this report, she came in,
and I found that her right eye had improved to 20/60, one third of
normal, while her left had become entirely normal, 20/20. Her right
eye was entirely straight at times, and I feel sure that in a few
months this condition will have become permanent.
Another case of squint was that of a young girl of fourteen with
rather large, pretty blue eyes, one of which, the right, was slightly
crossed inwardly. Her sight was very imperfect—half normal in the
right eye and one-third normal in the left—while, like most cross-eyed
people, she was troubled with double vision. I asked her to palm at
least six times a day, and she came back with her eyes straighter and
able to read 20/30 with both. The next week showed normal vision, the
eyes being at times perfectly straight.
I was particularly pleased to be able to relieve these little girls of
a disfigurement which means so much more to them than it would mean to
a boy, and I was much interested to note how much prettier their eyes
were, apart from the disappearance of the squint, after a few
treatments. They were wide open, softer-looking, in short, relaxed.
____
Imperfect Sight Can be Cured Without Glasses
You Can Cure Yourself
You Can Cure Others
Better Eyesight
A monthly magazine devoted to the prevention and cure of imperfect
sight without glasses
Copyright, 1920, by the Central Fixation Publishing Company
Editor—W. H. Bates, M.D.
Publisher—Central Fixation Publishing Co.
$2.00 per year, 20 cents per copy
342 West 42nd Street, New York, N. Y.
Vol. III - September, 1920 - No. 3
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