NEAR AND DISTANT SIGHT, 
263 
make them meet at a nearer distance tliau seven indies, or to F.ict« relating 
gain a distinct image ot the candle retlected by the bulb of the , 
a •'01 dilatation oi 
tbei monieter nearer than this distance j but he could discern the iiuinl, stc. 
it at two teet ten itiches from the eye, whicli was three inches 
further than he was able to see it before the belladonna was 
applied. During the time of the experiment on the right 
eye, the left eye possessed its usual range of vision, but the 
sight, when both eyes were open, was rather confused, in con- 
sequence of the unetjual foci of the two eyes ; and it did not 
become clear until the pupil of the right eye recovered its usual 
power of coni lading, which power was not acquired till the 
third day after the application of the belladonna. 
It is remarkable that a ditferent etTect is sometimes produced 
on a near-sighted eye by the application of the belladonna, 
from that which it has on an eye that enjoys a distant sight. 
Dr. Wells made an experiment of this kind on a friend of 
his, who was near-sighted ; and he informs us, in the paper 
above referred to, that, in this instance, the nearest point of 
perfect vision was moved forwards during the dilatation of 
the pupil, whilst its remote point remained unaltered. 1 have 
made a similar experiment on the eyes of several such persons j 
and though in two of these the result appeared to be similar 
to that which has been mentioned by Dr. Wells, yet, in the 
greater number, their sight, like that of those w'ho were not 
myopic, has become more distant as the pupil became more 
dilated. In one gentleman, in whom the lines of the opto- 
meter appeared to meet at four inches and a quarter from 
the eye, the pupil, in half an hour after the application of the 
belbdonna, became completely dilated j and, in consequence 
of this, the sight .at first was confused ; but both on that day, 
and for two days afterwards, it was evidently more distant, 
and the apparent lines on the optometer could not be made 
to meet nearer than seven inches from the eye. In a young 
lady, seventeen years of age, whose right eye was so near- 
sighted that the apparent lines on the optometer met at two 
inches and three quarters from the eye, these lines, when the 
pupil was dilated (which took place, in a small degree, in 
less 
