 William
H. Bates,
1860-1931
A history of Dr. W.H. Bates,
gathered from various sources.
A successful eye-surgeon
In 1885 William H Bates graduated with a medical degree from the
College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University in New York.
Dr. Bates became a successful and well-respected eye surgeon in New
York, where he was an instructor of ophthalmology at the New York
Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital from 1886 to 1891.
Dissatisfied
Dr. Bates became increasingly dissatisfied with conventional
ophthalmological practice, and he consequently began his own research into
eyesight disorders. He had observed patients with a refractive error
(e.g. short or long sight) that seemed to spontaneously change for the
better, sometimes to the point of a complete reversal of symptoms.
This led him to question one of the most basic assumptions of the accepted
practice of ophthalmology; namely, that once symptoms of refractive error
were present in a particular patient, then nothing could be done other
than prescribing glasses. Dr. Bates was not satisfied with the prevailing
theory of accommodation (how the eye focuses). The prevailing theory
of accommodation was, and still is, that the curvature of the lens of the
eye is the only part responsible for accommodation and that it is its
inflexibility that causes failing sight. For years Dr. Bates felt
there was something wrong about the procedure of prescribing glasses to
patients who came to him about their eyes. "Why,"
he asked, "if glasses are correct, must they continually
be strengthened because the eyes, under their influence, have weakened?
Logically, if a medicine is good, the dose should be weakened as the patient
grows stronger." Dr. Bates gave up his lucrative practice
and went into the laboratory at Columbia University to study eyes as they
had never been studied before. Disregarding all he had learned in
textbooks, he experimented on eyes with an open mind. He ran
experiments on animals and examined thousands of pairs of eyes. He
never restricted himself to the usual eye examination room, but carried
his retinoscope with him, inspecting the refractive state of eyes of both
people and animals in many different situations. He refracted eyes
of people when they were happy and sad, angry and afraid. Much of
this time was spent with children attempting to discover the cause of eye
disorders. His retinoscopic findings indicated that the refractive
state of the eye was not the static condition textbooks reported, but
varied tremendously with the emotional state.
Bates cured his own 'stone-hard presbyopia'
In his 1920 book Perfect Sight Without Glasses, Dr. Bates writes
about his own eyesight improvement. He had been told by various eye
specialists that his lens was "as hard as a stone" and that
"no one can do anything for you." But through studying his
own case intensively, and finding a way to not strain his eyes when
wanting to read, he regained an accommodative range of 14 inches.
That is the ability to focus on objects between 4 and 18 inches from
the eyes, so he was no longer suffering with presbyopic blur.
The Bates Method
He published an account of a little girl who developed temporary myopia
when she lied to him. This fact seemed very significant to him as it
was consistent with other findings of myopia that people tend to become
myopic when apprehensive. Dr. Bates found that the eye is never constantly
the same, that refractive error changed momentarily, that mental strain
and tension increased it and relaxation decreased it. His
conclusions were that imperfect sight was not possible without first a
mental strain, that eyes are tough to what happens from the exterior, that
they could mend rapidly from scratches, bumps, and even burns, but could
be blinded by mental strain. Dr. Bates went on to formulate a new set
of theories about eyesight and he developed what later became known as
'the Bates Method' to help people to improve their sight.
According to Dr. Bates, poor eyesight is caused primarily by three
things: 1. Stress or mental strain, 2. Poor vision habits, and
3. Wearing glasses.
Expelled
Ophthalmologists at the New York Postgraduate Medical School and Hospital
put glasses on myopic doctors and Dr. Bates then had those doctors remove
their glasses and cured them of myopia. Dr. Roosa, the head of the
institution, did not accept what Dr. Bates had been doing and he expelled
Bates from the institution in 1891.
Preventing myopia
In 1896 Dr. Bates resigned his hospital appointments and began to engage in
experimental work. In 1902 he left New York and began to
successfully implement his methods for preventing myopia in schoolchildren
at the public schools of Grand Forks, North Dakota. In 1910 he
returned to New York and worked as attending physician at the Harlem
Hospital in New York City. He soon began implementing his methods
for the prevention of myopia in some public schools in New York City.
At the Harlem Hospital he began to work together with Emily Lierman,
who had improved her eyesight using his methods (they married in
1928). They held free 'Clinic days' several times per week, usually
having long lines of people waiting to be helped.
Publications
In 1891 Dr. Bates published his first article in a medical journal on the
elimination of myopia. While carrying on his experiments he
developed a method of photographing the eye to reveal changes in surface
curvature as the eye functioned. This work is discussed in "A Study of Images
Reflected from the Cornea, Iris, Lens, and Sclera" (NY Medical
Journal, May 18, 1918). His researches on the influence of memory
upon the function of vision are described in "Memory as an Aid to Vision"
(NY Medical Journal, May 24, 1919).
In 1919 Dr. Bates began to publish monthly issues of his Better Eyesight
magazine which was to continue for 11 years.
In 1920 he published his book, Perfect Sight Without Glasses, also
called The Cure of
Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses.
(download
the original 1920 book for free or buy a first
edition hardcover book)
In July 1921 the American Journal of Clinical Medicine published an
article titled: 'A Clinical and experimental study of physiological optics
with a view to the cure of imperfect sight without glasses'. This
article is a great introduction to Dr. Bates' theories, and I especially
recommend this to all optometrists, ophthalmologists as well as serious
students of the method. (I provide a free
download of this article.)
Private practice
In 1923 the Clinic was discontinued at the Harlem Hospital as Bates left
the hospital and began holding a "Clinic Day" at his own private
practice on Saturdays. He continued to treat patients constantly for
practically all forms of imperfect sight and tended to work 10 hours per
day, 7 days per week.
After his death
Dr. Bates died on 10 July 1931, at the age of 70. He died at his home
in New York during a polio epidemic. In 1940 his wife Emily republished his
book
and added a useful chapter at the end with suggestions on how to use the
method. After legal problems of other teachers, such as
Margaret Corbett's court case in 1940/1941, Emily published
an edited version of the book in 1943 and called it: Better eyesight without glasses. This
version left out much of the original text which made it more difficult to
understand what Dr. Bates intended to convey to the reader.
Without easy access to the Better
Eyesight magazines which did explain the method in great detail, the Bates
Method became misunderstood by many people. These days it is often associated
with doing eye exercises. This is not what Dr. Bates taught. He
recommended not eye exercises but the use of relaxed natural vision habits
all day long.
Today there are professional teachers throughout the world who have been
trained in the Bates Method. See Natural Vision
Educators for a list of Bates Method teachers.
For in-depth information about Dr. Bates and his work I suggest reading his
original 1920 book (available for free here or first
editions for sale here)
and his Better Eyesight magazines, available
here.
Learn Dr. Bates' Method.
If you'd like to overcome your own blurry vision, check out the classes
offered.
(back
to top)
|
