XVI. On a peculiar Defect in the Eye, and 
a mode of correcting at. 
By GEORGE BIDDELL AIRY, B.A._ 
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OF THE CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, 
AND CORRESPONDING MEMBER OF THE NORTHERN INSTITUTE. 
[Read Feb. 21, 1825.] 
"Tue communication which I have now the honour to make 
to this Society, relates to a peculiar defect of the eye, and the 
mode of correcting it. On a subject so important, [ trust I shall 
be excused if I enter into details; as the mal-formation which 
I am about to describe, though hitherto unnoticed, is probably 
not uncommon. 
Two or three years since, I discovered that in reading I did 
not usually employ my left eye, and that in looking carefully 
at any near object, it was totally useless: in fact, the image 
formed in that eye was not perceived except my attention was 
particularly directed to it. Supposing this to be entirely owing 
to habit, and that it might be corrected by using the left eye 
as much as possible, I endeavoured to read with the right eye 
closed or shaded, but found that I could not distinguish a letter, 
at least in small print, at whatever distance from my eye the 
characters were placed. No further remark suggested itself at 
that time, but a considerable time afterwards I observed, that 
the image formed by a bright point (as a distant lamp or a star) 
Vol. If. Part If. Mm 
