Presbyopia at the Clinic
Lelouch Lamperouge
Stories from the Clinic
14: Three Cases of Presbyopia
By Emily C. Lierman
As a rule more children than adults come to the clinic. They are sent
to us by the schools, usually because they cannot see the blackboard.
But during the war it was astonishing how many women came to us. Many
of them were employed in factories where American flags were
manufactured and could not see to do the work properly, although their
sight at the distance seemed to be satisfactory. Some had trouble in
threading their needles. Others complained that they saw double. One
told me that she sometimes stitched her fingers to the blue field of
the flag along with the stars. They all asked for glasses, of course,
but were very glad to learn that they could be cured so that they
could see without them.
Among these very interesting patients was a woman of about fifty who
had great trouble in threading her needle, and who begged me to help
her because she had her living to earn. She spoke with a pronounced
Irish accent, and was very amusing. Her distant vision was quickly
improved by palming and flashing the letters on the Snellen test card.
Then I suggested that she practice with fine print six inches from her
eyes. Even though she did not see the letters, I told her, it would
help her to alternately rest her eyes by closing for a few minutes and
then look at the small letters for a couple of seconds. She got
immediate results from this, and was enthusiastic in her expressions
of appreciation.
"Sure, ma'am, may the good angels bless you for that!" she
exclaimed. "I think this very minute I would be threadin' a needle if
I had one. Me old man and the young ones at home will think it foine
to have meself threadin' a needle."
It seemed that members of her family had been called upon to thread
her needles, and had found the task somewhat irksome.
The next clinic day she came again, and, although it was afternoon
greeted me vociferously with the Irish salutation:
"Top o' the mornin' to you!"
"Top o' the morning to yourself!" said I, and then I suggested that
she should not speak so loud, as I was afraid she would disturb the
other patients.
I am not sure that she did any harm, however. The patients all smiled
at her remark, even the Jewish patients, who, I imagine, could not
have understood it. It does me good to see these poor unfortunates
smile a little, and I think it must do them good also.
She soon became able to thread her needle without any trouble, and she
wanted everyone in the room to know it. The last time I saw her she
said:
"Sure, ma'am, me eyes are very sharp now, for the minute I sot eyes
on me man when he comes home at night I can tell by the twinkle in his
eye whither he has had anything stronger than water or tea."
Another woman, forty-eight years of age, told me that the first time
she came to the clinic she thought she had got into the wrong place.
Half a dozen people had their eyes covered with the palms of their
hands, to rest them, and she thought it was a prayer meeting. It was
she who sewed her fingers to the flag along with the stars.
"What I need is glasses," she said, "and that's what I am here
for"; but I soon convinced her that the glasses were unnecessary.
By having her alternately close and open her eyes I improved her sight
for the Snellen test card from 15/40 to 15/20. Then I gave her some
fine print to read, but it was only a blur to her. I now told her to
palm, and imagine that she was sewing stars to the flag. When she
opened her eyes her sight was worse. The very thought of those stars
increased her strain and made her vision worse. This convinced her
that her trouble was due to strain, and that all she needed was to get
rid of the strain. I now asked her to imagine more agreeable objects
at the near-point. She at once became able to read the fine print, and
her sight for the distance also improved. After four visits to the
clinic her vision both for the distance and the near-point had become
almost normal. It was quite easy for her to thread a needle and to do
her work without glasses.
A woman of seventy-four who has been coming to the clinic for some
time works every day in an orphanage where she mends the children's
clothes, and does other sewing. She complained that her glasses did
not fit her, and she could no longer see to sew with them. I gave her
a small card with some fine print on the back.
"Do you mean to tell me," she asked, "that I will ever read that?"
"It is possible," I said.
Her smiling face was good to see, as she tried to do as I instructed
her. The print was larger on one side of the card than on the other,
and I asked her to read the name printed in the larger letters. She
could not do so at first. I told her to close her eyes, count ten,
then open them and look at the card while she counted two, then
repeat. In a few minutes she saw the name on the card and also the
phone number. I then had her do the same thing with the diamond type
on the reverse side, and after a while she became able to see some of
the letters. At later visits she obtained further improvement, and
after some months she had no difficulty in sewing the buttons on the
children's clothes, without her glasses, although as she said, there
were a lot of them and they kept her busy. Once during the treatment I
asked her to remember the daisy in the green field as she saw it in
the country last summer.
"There weren't any daisies but me while I was there," she answered.
"I was the only daisy."
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Presbyopia Number
Better Eyesight
A monthly magazine devoted to the prevention and cure of imperfect
sight without glasses
Copyright, 1921, 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
300 Madison Avenue, New York, N. Y.
Vol. IV - April 1921 - No. 4
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