NEAR AND DISTANT SIGHT. 
S81 
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 precisely 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 remark;^ 
able 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 j but 
none ol them have made any alteration. It should be men-s.iigularcon- 
tioned, that, in order to produce the contraction of the pupil, 
the object looked at must be placed exactly nine inches from 
t the eye j and if it be brought nearer, it has no more power to 
produce the contraction than if it were placed at a remoter 
I distance. It should also be mentioned, that the continuance of 
I the contraction of the pupil depends, in some degree, on the 
1 state of the lady’s health ; since, though its contraction never 
I remains long after the attention is withdrawn from a near ob- 
jject, yet, whenever she is debilitated by a temporary ailment, 
ithe contraction is of much shorter duration than when her 
1 health is entire*. 
Dr. Wells, in his ingenious paper, published in the second Facts relating 
ipart of the Transactions of the Royal Society for the year of di'latation*of 
the pupil, &c. 
• Several instances have come niuler niy notice, iu which the pupil 
i(of one eye has become diluted 10 a ereat degree, and has been inca- 
I pable of contracting on an incrci»se of light, whilst the pupil of tlie 
other eye has remained of its natural size. In some of these, the 
eeye with the dilated pupil has been totally deprived of sight, the dis- 
■ ordcr answering to that of a perfect amauroais ; but in others, the dila- 
ttation of tlie pupil has only occasioned an inability to di.<tinguish mi- 
innte objects. Reading has been accomplished with difficulty, and 
I'convex glasses have afiorded very little assistiuce. Though objects 
,\at a distance were seen with less inconvenience than those that were 
isiear, these also appeared to the atfeeted eye mucli less distinct than to 
tlhe other. Mostof the persoas to whom I allude had been debilitated, 
Iby fatigue or anxiety, before the impoTfectien was discovered in the 
light i and in some it ha^ been preceded by affections of the stomach 
land alimentary canal. 
VoL. XXXYI.— No. 1G8. X 1611, 
X 
