William Horatio Bates

“ Except in extraordinarily rare cases blindness is curable.” In fact, unless the eyeball has been removed from the head, I should be unwilling to set any limits whatever to the possibility of relieving this greatest of human ills, for I have never seen a case or injury or disease of the eye which was sufficient to prevent improvement of vision. In all cases of blindness, whatever their cause, a mental strain has been demonstrated, and when this strain has been relieved perception of light has always been obtained. ”

“ Twenty-five years ago Samuel D. was struck in the left eye by a nail thrown carelessly from a roof, and nineteen years later, while he was chopping wood, a stick flew up, hitting him in the face and injuring the same eye. ”

“ This may cause the patient to accept as inevitable a condition which might have been cured, and may even prevent Nature, because of the depressing effects of discouragement from doing what the doctor has failed to do. Still less is it justifiable for the medical profession to assume, as it now seems to do, that we have learned all there is to be known about blindness. Such an attitude throttles research, and actually exposes to the suspicion of being a quack any man who tries to help these unfortunates. ”

“ As ordinarily used the word blindness signifies a degree of defective sight which unfits the patient for any occupation requiring the use of the eyes. Scientifically it means a state in which there is no perception of light. ”

“ The perception of light in the blind eye has grown steadily, and the vision has so improved that now, at a distance of fourteen feet, he can see a moving object against a strong light, while at the near-point he even thinks that he can sometimes catch a glimpse of the large letter on the Snellen test card. ”

“ He is now back in his old position, doing his usual amount of work, attending to his correspondence, and reading as well as he ever did. Doctors who have examined his eyes since say he still has atrophy of the optic nerve and ought still to be blind. ”