CLVIII BOWMAN LECTURE. 



that his light-minimum was much higher than ours, and that he required 

 longer than we did in order to see the object even when the light was 

 enoiigh (viz., slow adaptation) ; and with light below his minimum a 

 slight increase at once made the object visible to him (this also shows 

 slow adaptation). Fields to rough hand tests did not show contraction. 

 He always takes his sister's arm when out with her in the dusk. At 

 home he often knocks against a certain door-prop which his sister says 

 no one else would do. 



V, 3, only sister of the last, aet. about 20 years, a school teacher, not 

 myopic, fundus perfectly normal. 



V, 9, said to have been " very short-sighted, held his book very close," 

 and his aunt, IV, 4, who knew him, wrote that " she thought he was 

 afflicted in much the same way as her son," V, 4 ; he did not use spec- 

 tacles ; died at 25. He had about six siblings, who all saw quite well. 



V, 11 said never to have had good sight, and eventually went quite 

 blind, but no particulars are known. She is dead. She was one of the 

 seven or eight children. She did not wear glasses. 



V, 13 known to have good sight. 



IV, 4, who died during 1908, had perfect sight, as has her husband, 

 IV, 14. 



Ill, 4 and 6 had perfect vision. 



Xo consanguinity between IV, 4 and 14. 



Case 44a (no figure). By a curious coincidence another family with the 

 same complaint lives in the next village to V, 4 of the case just narrated. 

 The two families are not related in any way on either side ; the former 

 came from a distance in recent years, the latter has been settled as 

 farmers at or near Navenby for a long time. 



This second family could not be fully searched out ; the information 

 obtained is given for what it is worth. 



Ill, 1 and 2 were first cousins and I, 1 was the grandfather of one of 

 them and he became blind, probably from cataract, in old age, and died 

 recently (1907 or 1908) at 80. II, 1 is living and sees well; her 

 husband, who also had good sight, died in middle age. They have 5 

 children, and I believe there were no more. 



Ill, 1, set. 24 years, very poorly educated on account of his bad sight, is 

 said by his mother to have been very short-sighted and night-blind since 

 early childhood. When examined (October 3rd, 1908) we estimated his 

 myopia at about 10 D. by direct ophthalmoscopic measurement, and found 

 the retinal vessels normal and no fundus changes, except moderate cres- 

 cents. With his spectacles on his sight was conspicuously defective for 

 objects 4m. to 5m. off in a dim light (partially darkened passage in his 

 own house) ; without glasses he only read J. 4 word for word, but as he 

 was almost illiterate this test Avas inconclusive ; the Fs. to rough hand 

 test seemed full. His mother said that he always had to be led home 

 from church after evening service. 



Ill, 2, at. 17 years, now has about 3 D. of myopia, and did not show 

 any shortness of sight till she was about 13. Nothing was said about 

 night-blindness in her; fundus normal. 



