4 Mr. Home’s Lecture on the Power of the Eye, 
page of a book might have confused him : he was directed to 
vary the distance of the pasteboard from his eye, till he had 
ascertained the nearest and most distant situations, in which the 
object appeared distinct; these distances, by measurement, were 
7 inches, and 18 inches. In repeating this experiment several 
different times, he brought the object very correctly to the same 
situations. 
This result convinced Mr. Ramsden, that the eye possessed 
the power of varying its adjustment ; and he did not think any 
more complex experiments would be nearly so satisfactory; 
consequently, no others were made, and the man was allowed 
to go into the country. 
It was intended to make him a present of a pair of spectacles, 
allowing him to choose those best adapted to his eye; but his 
sight was so very good, that we entirely forgot it, till some time 
after he was gone. 
These experiments confirmed the former ones so very strong- 
ly, and from their simplicity were so much less liable to error, 
that Mr. Ramsden and myself considered the object of our 
\ 
inquiry completely attained ; the reason for not, at the time, 
laying them before this learned Society was, that they estab- 
lished no new fact, and the former ones did not appear to require 
their support. 
This inquiry, always regarded as highly important by phy- 
siologists, has continued to engage their attention ; and, in the 
Rakerian Lecture for last year, Dr. Young has advanced some 
experiments to prove, that the adjustment of the eye to different 
distances, depends upon the crystalline lens : he considers the 
results of the experiments made by Mr. Ramsden, upon Ben- 
jamin Clerk’s eyes, as inconclusive ; and the phenomena met 
