D/. Wells’s Observations , 
379 
retinas; but I was quickly obliged to abandon this opinion, as 
the patient assured me, that his sensation of light was as strong, 
as it had ever been during any former period of his life. I 
next inquired, whether objects at different distances appeared 
to him equally distinct. He answered, that he saw distant 
objects accurately, and in proof told me what the hour was, 
by a remote public clock ; but he added, that the letters of a 
book seemed to him so confused, that it was with difficulty he 
could make out the words which they composed. He was 
now desired to look at a page of a printed book through spec- 
tacles with convex glasses. He did so, and found that he 
could read it with ease. From these circumstances it was very 
plain, that this gentleman, at the same time that his pupils had 
become dilated, and his upper eye-lids paralytic, had acquired 
the sight of an old man, by losing suddenly the command of 
the muscles, by which the eye is enabled to see near objects 
distinctly ; it being known to those, who are conversant with 
the facts relating to human vision, that the eye in its relaxed 
state is fitted for distant objects, and that the seeing of near 
objects accurately is dependant upon muscular exertion. 
The disease of which I have spoken is perhaps not ex- 
tremely rare. For having related the preceding instance of 
it to Mr. Ware, a Fellow of this Society, he was kind enough 
shortly after to send to me a young woman, who appeared to be 
likewise affected with it. But as I saw her only once, and had 
not then sufficient time to examine her case minutely, I speak 
with diffidence concerning its nature. 
II. After I had reflected frequently upon these cases, it oc- 
curred to me, that, as the juice of the herb Belladonna, when 
applied to the eye, occasions the pupil to dilate considerably, 
3 C 2 
