This is an online copy of Dr. William Bates’s original 1920 book. The cover title was Perfect Sight Without Glasses. The title on the inside title page was The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses.
Bates self-published this book under The Central Fixation Publishing Company.
The hardcover books were leather-bound, in green, blue and red. I believe they must have been different publishing runs. In any case, the original printing seems to be 1920, and he may have done more publishing runs over the next few years. Bates died in 1930.
The book’s copyright expired in 1948. It is now in the public domain.
This book should not be confused with Better Eyesight Without Glasses, also titled The Bates Method for Better Eyesight Without Glasses, an abridged edition first published in 1943, twelve years after Bates’s death. That edition is more widely available, but it excludes large portions of the text and all pictures, and a little content added by his widow Emily.
His method was only called the “Bates method” later on. While he was alive, Bates explained it as simply the methods used by the eye with good vision, and he didn’t give it any other formal name.
There is also a relatively short 1996 book titled simply The Bates Method, by Peter Mansfield, and several other books with variations on the title.
Note that this book is not really a book of eye exercises. The author gives many suggested methods, but the value of the book is in his explanation of his approach. This was the pioneering book that started the whole modern natural vision improvement movement.
Chapters
Chapter 2 – Simultaneous Retinoscopy
Chapter 3 – Evidence for the Accepted Theory of Accommodation
Chapter 4 – The Truth About Accommodation … (1)
Chapter 5 – The Truth About Accommodation … (2)
Chapter 6 – The Truth About Accommodation … (3)
Chapter 7 – The Variability of the Refraction of the Eye
Chapter 8 – What Glasses Do to Us
Chapter 9 – Cause and Cure of Errors of Refraction
Chapter 10 – Strain
Chapter 11 – Central Fixation
Chapter 12 – Palming
Chapter 13 – Memory As an Aid to Vision
Chapter 14 – Imagination As an Aid to Vision
Chapter 15 – Shifting and Swinging
Chapter 16 – The Illusions of Imperfect and of Normal Sight
Chapter 17 – Vision Under Adverse Conditions a Benefit to the Eye
Chapter 18 – Optimums and Pessimums
Chapter 19 – The Relief of Pain and Other Symptoms by the Aid of the Memory
Chapter 20 – Presbyopia: Its Cause and Cure
Chapter 21 – Squint and Amblyopia: Their Cause
Chapter 22 – Squint and Amblyopia: Their Cure
Chapter 23 – Floating Specks: Their Cause and Cure
Chapter 24 – Home Treatment
Chapter 25 – Correspondence Treatment
Chapter 26 – The Prevention of Myopia in Schools: Methods that Failed
Chapter 27 – The Prevention and Cure of Myopia and Other Errors …
Chapter 28 – The Story of Emily
Chapter 29 – Mind and Vision
Chapter 30 – Normal Sight and the Relief of Pain for Soldiers and Sailors
Chapter 31 – Letters from Patients
Chapter 32 – Reason and Authority
Credit to the people who assisted in this project.
| William H. Bates, M.D. | — author of the book |
| Health Research Books | — 1978 reprint |
| Thomas R. Quackenbush | — conversion into digital format, including scanning, OCR, and proofreading |
| Jon Sherling | — conversion into html for use on a website |
| Alex Eulenberg | — additional editing and making available at i-see |