334 - Observations relative to 
the rim of the cornea; but whenever she looks at a small 
object, nine inches from the eye, it contracts, within less 
than a minute, to a size nearly as small as the head of a 
pin. Her left pupil is not affected like the right; but in 
every degree of light and distance, it is contracted rather 
more than is usual in other persons. The vision is not pre- 
cisely alike in the two eyes; the right eye being in a small 
degree near-sighted, and receiving assistance from the first 
number of a concave glass, whereas the left eye derives no 
benefit from it. This remarkable dilatation of the pupil of 
the right eye was first noticed about twenty years ago, 
and a variety of remedies have been employed at different 
times with a view to correct it; but none of them have 
made any alteration. It should be mentioned, that, in 
order to produce the contraction of the pupil, the object 
looked at must be placed exactly nine inches from the eye ; 
and if it be brought nearer, it has no more power to pro- 
duce the contraction than if it were placed at a remoter 
distance. It should also be mentioned, ‘that the con- 
tinuance of the contraction of the pupil depends, in some 
degree, on the state of the lady’s health; since, though its 
contraction never remains long after the attention is with- 
drawn from a near object, yet whenever she is debilitated 
by a temporary ailment, the contraction is of much shorter 
duration than when her health is entire*. 
Dr. Wells, in his ingenious paper, published in the Se- 
cond Part of the Transactions of the Royal Society for the 
year 1811, has taken pains to ascertain, whether the power 
by which the eye is adjusted to see at different distances, 
depends in any degree on the faculty in the pupil of dilating 
and contracting ; and whether its fixed dilatation has any 
influence in preventing an accurate view of near objects. 
This last-mentioned effect Dr. Wells relates to have taken 
place remarkably in the case of Dr. Cutting, whose pupil 
being fixed in a dilated state by the action of the extract of 
* Several instances have come under my notice, in which the pupil of one 
eye has becomedilated to a great degree, and has been incapable of contracting 
on an increase of light, whilst the pupil of the other eye has remained of its 
natural size. In some of these, the eye with the dilated pupil has been to- 
tally deprived of sight, the disorder answering to that of a perfect amaurosis ; 
but in others, the dilatation of the pupil has only occasioned an inability to 
distinguish minute objects. Reading has been accomplished with difficulty, 
and convex glasses have afforded very little assistance. Though objects at 
a distance were seen with less inconvenience than those that were near, 
these also appeared to the affected eye much less distinct than to the other. 
Most of the persons to whom I allude had been debilitated, by fatigue or 
anxiety, before the imperfection was discovered in the sight; and insome 
it had been preceded by affections of the stomach and alimentary canal, 
belladonna, 
