Stories from the Clinic

Chapter 1: Experiences with School Children, page 2/5

Betty, aged 13 years, usually found a convenient comer of our room where she could watch the patients having their eyes treated. She had no trouble with her eyes, but always came with her school chum who was under treatment. She listened attentively as I encouraged the patients, but was never troublesome nor did she ask any questions at any time. Somehow, she obtained a Snellen test card and helped some of her playmates recover their vision. She brought several of them to me to make sure that they could get along without their glasses.

One of the children was a boy, twelve years old, named John, who had worn glasses for five years and was very near-sighted. The school doctor had ordered glasses for him at the age of seven. Dr. Bates examined them and discovered that the boy was wearing far-sighted glasses for myopia, or near-sight. When they were changed the year before, the optician who sold them had made a terrible error. No wonder Johnnie was willing to have Betty help him! She told me that he could only see the fifty line of the card ten feet away without his glasses. When I tested Johnnie he placed himself fifteen feet away from the card and read every line of letters without a mistake. He told me how Betty spent an hour with him almost every day for three weeks, until he became able to read the card at any distance Betty desired him to read it. I am sorry she stopped coming to the clinic. Her parents moved away, and I lost a very good assistant.

Then a mother came to the clinic with her two little girls. Marjorie, the older, had been to us some years previously and was cured. The younger child was sent home by the school nurse and told to see a doctor about her eyes. Dr. Bates told the mother to wait for me, that I would test the children's eyes. The mother kept looking at me, smiling all the while. She asked: "Don't you remember me? Don't you remember my little girl? I brought her to you and Dr. Bates six years ago. She had alternate squint when she was three years old, and Dr. Bates cured her without an operation."

Hundreds of cases had been treated and cured In that time, and this dear little girl had grown from a wee tot of three years to a big girl of nine. The mother waited patiently for me to say yes. I tried my best to remember, for my memory is usually good, but I failed this time. Before I knew it I answered, "Yes, surely I remember." How grateful this mother was because I did not forget her child, and how sorry I was because I told a fib. She just knew that I would not forget, so I could not convince her that I did. If Dr, Bates had had his retinoscope handy, he would have found that I was made near-sighted by telling the fib. When one tells an untruth, the retinoscope always reveals the fact.

Marjorie's eyes were as straight as mine, but everyone in the clinic who would listen to the mother that day, heard how we had cured her child of cross eyes.

Her sister Katherine, aged seven years, stood by, wondering what we were going to do with her. Both girls were dressed with the greatest of care, and Katherine looked very much like a big French doll with her head just covered with curls. Dr. Bates examined her and said she had myopia, but not a bad case. I placed her ten feet from the test card and she read every letter correctly down to the forty line. As I walked over to where the card was placed to assist my little patient, the mother got ahead of me, and in a soft tone of voice, encouraged Katherine to palm and remember the last letter of the forty line of the card. Katherine did so, but she had only covered her eyes for a minute when she removed her hands and opened her eyes to read again. I wanted to tell the child that she had not palmed long enough, but before I could say a word, she began to read the next line of letters as her mother pointed to each one. After each letter was read, her mother very gently told her to blink and that would help her to see the next letter without a strain. When Katherine had finished reading all of the thirty line without a mistake, the mother did not stop, but kept right on to the next line, pointing to one letter and then another until she read all of the twenty line.

Then the mother advised Katherine to swing her body from side to side, and to notice that everything in the room seemed to move in the opposite direction. While her mother was advising her what to do, the child did the best she could to read the card. The mother smiled when she saw how amazed I was to see her improve Katharine's eyes without my help. I asked: "Where d!d you learn how to do it?" She answered: "From reading your articles in the 'Better Eyesight Magazine.' I have been a subscriber for a number of years," Some months later I saw them again. Kathefine's vision was 10/10 in each eye. It is interesting to report that the child was cured entirely by her mother.

Staring is one of the greatest evils. Children demonstrate this repeatedly.

A little Jewish girl had been coming to us for a year. On her first visit, she told us that the school nurse insisted that her eyes should be examined for glasses. Her mother was with her and begged me not to put them on the child, as she had a great dislike for them. She also believed that glasses could not possibly cure her. I was glad that I did not have to spend time convincing the mother that her little girl would not need them.

I tested the child's sight with the card and found that she had 20/70 with the right eye and 20/100 with the left. The girl stared constantly while she read the letters and I drew her mother's attention to this fact. I instructed the child to took away in another direction after she had read one or two letters of a line; she then improved her sight with both eyes to 20/50. Her mother was a valuable help to me in supervising the child's practice at home. No matter what the child was doing, or whenever she read a book or studied her lessons, the mother told her not to stare.

The directions for treatment at home and in school were simple. For Instance, when she was asked to read something on tbe blackboard, she was not to look at the whole of a word or a sentence at one time. She was to look at the first letter of a word and blink her eyes. It would then clear up, and she could see the whole word without staring. In order to read a sentence without staring, she was to look at the first letter of the first word and then look at the last letter of the last word of the sentence, and to blink her eyes frequently while doing this.

How proud I was when she was promoted into a higher class without the aid of glasses I She was very grateful for what we had accomplished. Her school teacher, who had a very high degree of myopia, was so impressed by her marked improvement that she also became a patient of Dr. Bates, and is now enjoying good sight without glasses. Proof of her cure may be seen in the wonderful needle work which she is able to do.

A school nurse brought us a child who was causing her teacher a great deal of worry because she could not remember anything. It was thought that glasses might help her, She was very nervous, and her face plainly showed a strain. At ten feet the letters on the bottom line of the test card were only black spots to hen This little child did not like to palm, so I asked her to look at a letter on the bottom line, which was a C, and with her eyes closed imagine it had a straight top. She said she could better imagine that it curved. Then she found she could imagine two other sides, one curved and one open, and when she opened her eyes she saw the letter C distinctly. I also noticed that she had stopped frowning.

By the same method, she became able to read all the other letters on the bottom line, demonstrating that her imperfect memory had been due to eyestrain. She had unconsciously seen the letters, but the eyestrain had suppressed the memory of them. With her eyes closed the strain disappeared, and she became able to remember, or imagine the letters.

It should be emphasized that palming regularly is a great help not only to the sight, but also to the mind. What a pity it is that all school nurses do not know what can really be accomplished in a few minutes each day, for the relief of eyestrain in school children. Teachers are always grateful when their pupils are cured of eyestrain, for after the children are cured, it is much easier to teach them.

Jennie's mother was informed that her daughter needed glasses. I told the mother that Dr. Bates did not fit glasses at the clinic, and in order to get them she would have to come another day and ace another doctor. The mother could not speak very good English. Her first question was: "I get der glasses fer nottink, yes?" "No," I replied, "I am sorry to say, you must pay for them."

She started to leave the room, when I called her back and tested Jennie's sight. I felt sorry for the little girl, because she was very pretty, except for her eyes, which were partly closed most of the time.

"I don't like to wear glasses," she said. "I wore them for two weeks and then I broke them. Please help me so that I won't have to wear them again."

The mother seemed bewildered at first, and then she said, In a burst of confidence:

"You. know, nurse, if der glasses was fer nottink, 1 should vorry. But all der time money, money for glasses, when all der time she breaks dem."

I told the poor mother not to worry, because her child could be cured and that she would not need glasses, if she would do what I told her.

"Sure, sure," she replied. "Det's all right, lady. You fix my Jennie's eyes, yes? Ven ve don't buy glasses ve got more money to buy someding for der stomach, yes?"

An Irish woman was standing by, and she roared with laughter. To keep peace in the room I had to use some tact and I thought it best to usher the Irish woman outside until I had treated the little girl, who turned out to be a very interesting patient. Jennie had never seen a test card before, and after palming was able to read the thirty line at fifteen feet. Below this, the card was a blank to her. I told her to follow my finger, while, with a rapid movement, I pointed to the large letter at the top of the card and so on down to the ten line. I directed her to palm, and pointing to the last letter on the ten line, which was an F, and quite small, I asked her if she could Imagine some letter her teacher had written on the blackboard that day.

She replied: "Yes, I can imagine I see the letter O, a white O."

"Keep your eyes closed," I said, "and imagine that the letter I am pointing at has a curved top. Can you still imagine the O?"

"No," she said, "I can't imagine anything now."

"Can you imagine it is open, or straight at the top?" I asked.

She became excited and said: "If I imagine It has a straight top, I can still remember the white O."

"Fine," I said. "Can you imagine it has a straight line at the bottom?"

"No, if I do that I lose the O. I can imagine it's open much better."

"Good," I said. "It is open. Now imagine the left side open or straight."

She replied: "I can imagine it is straight. I think it is an F."

And when she opened her eyes she saw it plainly. The fact was that, although she had been unable to see this letter consciously, she had unconsciously seen it for a fraction of a second, and could not imagine it to be other than it was, without a strain that caused her to lose control of her memory. And when she imagined it correctly she relaxed so that when she opened her eyes, she was able to see it. Jennie continued to come for treatment until she was cured. A month later her vision became normal and she had no more trouble. It would be very wonderful if all patients had as good an imagination. In that event the cure of imperfect sight would be much quicker.

For a long time Alice, aged nine, had been complaining of headaches. She did not like to wear glasses, and her mother was also opposed to them. Her vision with each eye separately was 10/20. I told her that she could be cured easily, and directed her to palm for a little while. She began to weep, and then I asked her a few questions. I learned that she stood in fear of her teacher, but I soon realized that her fears were unfounded. She said: "In the mornings, before school, I feel perfectly well. After playing in the street with the other children, I also feel well, but when I go Into the class-room and start to study, my head begins to ache. It also aches when I am doing homework, but not so badly."

Again I asked her to read the test card at ten feet, and unconsciously I raised my voice a little. Immediately I saw her start as though some one had scared the very life out of her. I guessed at once just what was the matter, and lowering my voice, I told her as gently as possible that there was nothing to be frightened about.

"What you are not able to read on the test card today, you will read next time," I said.

She was encouraged to palm, and I left her for a time by herself. Coming back in a few minutes, I told her to remove her hands from her eyes, and tell me what she could read. I made my voice as low as I could, not much above a whisper. I placed her fifteen feet from the card this time, and she read all the letters without a mistake. Her vision was more than normal, and she said that her pain was gone. She came to the clinic several times after that to report that her headaches did not come back. She had practised palming her eyes many times a day and remembered to blink all the time she was awake.

Alice confided to me that an unruly scholar in her class disliked her teacher, and influenced Alice in the same way. I asked her if she could tell the number of scholars in her class-room.

"Yes, about sixty," she replied.

"My," I said, "if your mother had sixty children, wouldn't she be nervous and worried? Wouldn't you want to help her all you could? Suppose you make believe that the teacher is your mother, and try to help her all you can."

This had a good effect on Alice. The next time she came, her attitude toward her teacher seemed to have changed completely. At every subsequent visit she always had something nice to say about her wonderful teacher.

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