 For
true Bates aficionados...
A Brilliant Book
Perfect Sight Without Glasses (PSWG) is a brilliant book written by an
eye-surgeon for the masses. In it, Dr.
Bates tackles the paradigm of prescribing glasses for all functional
vision problems, and offers a new, natural way to regain and keep
visual clarity.
PSWG was the first book of its kind, and Dr. Bates was a true pioneer in
his field of ophthalmology. Many other books have since been
published on the subject of natural vision improvement, and the authors
usually draw much from Dr. Bates' techniques. Rightfully so, of
course, although I think few of the subsequent books were written with Dr.
Bates' in-depth understanding of how the eyes perform best.
The First Editions of Perfect Sight Without Glasses
I have three different 'first' editions (or different print runs) of Dr.
Bates' original book Perfect Sight Without Glasses. According
to the copyright date listed in the front of the book, it was first
published in 1920. All
three editions list only that date, and all are hardcover books bound in
leather. One of these three editions has a
brown-red color cover, one has a maroon cover, and one is green.
I do not know for sure which is
the true first edition, but there are a few major clues:
1.
In the September 1927 issue of Dr. Bates' magazine Better
Eyesight, I found:
| The
new edition of "Perfect Sight Without Glasses," by W. H.
Bates is now on sale at this address and all leading book stores.
Those who were unable to procure the book while our stock
was exhausted will receive prompt delivery.
Bound in green leather and embossed in gold.
$3.00 prepaid. |
(underscore
added)
2.
That edition in the green cover was done by "Burr Printing
House" in New York (as shown on the copyright page) while the
maroon edition was done by "Press of Thos. B. Brooks, Inc."
also in New York, and the brown-red edition has no printer listed.
3.
There is a major difference between the green cover book and the
brown-red and maroon books.
It is in the sample of photographically reduced print on page 195.
The brown-red and maroon cover versions have the article The Menace
of Large Print in 4 columns. (This article was also published in
Better Eyesight magazine of December 1919). The green cover
edition, on the contrary, shows 4 pages of the book itself (pages 59, 98,
66 and 83 are reprinted side by side).
4.
The print quality of the photographically reduced print
differs considerably. It is
poorest in the brown-red book, better but not great in the maroon book,
and best in the green book.
Overall print quality of text and photos
in the rest of the book shows similar quality differences between the
three editions, with the brown-red being quite readable but of poorest overall print quality,
the maroon book slightly better, and the green edition being the clearest.
5.
The layout of the pages in the brown-red book is slightly
different from both the others. The
pages do not have the double line at the top, just underneath the page
heading and page number. The
point of page break is also slightly different, even though the total
number of pages is the same.
6.
I noticed that page 41 of the red-brown edition had a minor typo
in the header, making two words out of 'inactive': "OBLIQUE MUSCLES
IN ACTIVE: NO ACCOMMODATION" which is corrected in the other editions
which have: "Oblique Muscles Inactive: No Accommodation".
7. Figure 47 on page 189 demonstrates looking directly at the
sun without discomfort. In the red-brown edition it is a close up of
the side of a woman's face; in the other editions it is a picture of a
mother and child. (Thanks to Daniel M for pointing this out.)
So, putting these facts together,
I think the brown-red edition was the true first edition in 1920 (no
printer listed, lower print quality). Bates
improved on that version with the maroon second run (no print date
available, but likely between 1921 and 1925) which he had printed by 'Press of Thos. B. Brooks, Inc', but which only marginally improved on
the quality of the print. When
that print ran out he decided to change the fine print text and subsequently
brought out the green cover books and had them printed by Burr Printing
House. Bates made sure they got it right...
Third time lucky.
That's my thinking on this
'triple first edition' matter! For
what it's worth ... ;-)
The Cure of Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses
In the Better Eyesight magazines
Dr. Bates' book is most often referred to as Perfect Sight Without
Glasses, yet, it is twice listed as having the title The Cure of
Imperfect Sight without Glasses.
In the article A
Study of the Imagination Bates refers to his
book as The Cure of Imperfect Sight without Glasses.
(According to a reference in Better Eyesight magazine of October 1925,
this article was published in the Allied Medical Journal, but so
far I
have not been able to find the exact date of
publication.)
The same title was referred to by
Kathleen Hurty in Better Eyesight magazine of May 1923 in which she writes
about a talk on 6 April 1923 given by Dr. Bates to 25 high school
teachers, practically all of whom "had read The Cure of Imperfect Sight
Without Glasses..."
The 1940 reprint - Perfect Sight Without Glasses
In 1940, nearly a decade after Dr. Bates died, his wife Emily Bates
re-published PSWG, once again using Burr Printing House in New York and
retaining the green leather cover with gold lettering of the title and
author's last name on the front and spine. It says this is the ninth
printing. Emily made a few additions to this 1940 edition of
the book.
This book had a cream colored
dust-jacket, with Perfect Sight Without Glasses printed on
the spine, yet the title on the front of the dust-jacket is The Cure of
Imperfect Sight by Treatment Without Glasses. Besides general
information about the book, the dust jacket also includes Emily A.
Bates, Publisher with her address as 20 Park Avenue, New York City.
The first interesting addition inside the book is a certificate and a
letter from Oglethorpe University in Atlanta Georgia, showing that the
book Perfect Sight Without Glasses has been accepted for inclusion
in the Crypt
of Civilization, which intends to preserve it for future
generations. This crypt is located at the Phoebe Hearst Hall of the
university. In a way, it is a 'museum' of the 1930s which will
supposedly remain sealed until the year 8113, so that the knowledge and
information from this era may be preserved for future
generations.
As an aside, the publisher William Randolph Hearst was a prominent
benefactor of Oglethorpe University, and his magazine Hearst's
International carried Bates' article Throw Away Your Glasses in
September 1923.
But back to the book: A one-page eye-chart is included on page 310
of the book, with letter size equivalents ranging from 50ft to
2ft.
The best part of this book is the new
chapter 33 titled How to demonstrate the fundamental principles
of treatment. This chapter is a valuable addition for anyone who
wants to work with the method on their own.
This 1940 edition finishes with a letter of appreciation of Dr. Bates
written by Dr. Daniel A. Poling.
The 1943 reprint - Better
Eyesight Without Glasses
In 1943 Emily published a much edited
version
of PSWG and changed the title to Better Eyesight Without Glasses
(BEWG). It was printed by Henry Holt and Company in New York.
I have a green colored hardback copy of this book from May 1944, with a
cream and black dust-jacket, so the comments below relate to this 1944
edition.
BEWG does not have The Fundamental Principle page that PSWG
begins with, yet BEWG does have the extra chapter
at the end; now titled The
Fundamental Principles of Treatment, which is more in-depth than
PSWG's first page on that topic.
BEWG does not include the original preface.
Whereas PSWG had many photos and illustrations, BEWG has only one: a
drawing of the eye and its muscles, which did not appear in PSWG.
BEWG provides a full size eye-chart, which is a useful addition to any
eyesight book.
The following chapters from PSWG have been left out of BEWG.
Chapter 3, Evidence for the accepted theory of accommodation
Chapter 6, The truth about accommodation as demonstrated by clinical
observations
Chapter 19, The relief of pain and other symptoms by the aid of the
memory.
Chapter 25, Correspondence treatment
Chapter 28, The story of Emily
Chapter 30, Normal sight and the relief of pain for soldiers and
sailors
Chapter 31, Letters from patients
Chapter 32, Reason and authority
Chapters 4 and 5 of PSWG are
combined into one in BEWG.
Chapters 8 through 18 and 20 through 24 of PSWG are kept more or less the same
in their essence in BEWG
although various paragraphs have been cut out.
The small print page (p195 in PSWG / between p126-127 in BEWG) is
different.
PSWG's Seven Truths of Normal Sight in diamond type font has been
replaced by a part copy of page 1 of BEWG in 4.5 point type. Even
though the print size is only slightly enlarged, I think it is a shame
that Emily moved away from the diamond type, and wonder why she might have
done that.
Thankfully, the photographic type reduction does stay true to size, the
only difference here between the two books being the actual text.
BEWG shows its own pages 2, 3, 4 and 5 reproduced here in 4 columns.
In PSWG's chapter 29, Mind and Vision, Bates attacks the
"irrational and unnatural educational system" as being the
fundamental reason for poor memory and poor eyesight in school
children. BEWG does not include this part of the chapter.
Overall, taking into account the various paragraphs and chapters omitted,
BEWG has become a much 'milder' book; less controversial and perhaps
therefore more popular.
Throughout BEWG I notice that, in general, the wording has changed away
from medical terms. Where PSWG talked about 'patients', BEWG often
replaces that with 'persons' or 'people'. As another example, PSWG chapter 9's title, The Cause and Cure of Errors of Refraction
was changed in BEWG to The Cause and Treatment of Errors of
Refraction.
These changes may have something to do with Margaret
Corbett's court case at the end of 1940. Mrs. Corbett was a Bates
Method teacher in California who was charged with practicing optometry
without a license. She successfully defended her case and continued
to teach, yet she became very careful about how she advertised her work,
and she advised other teachers to use similar caution. As Emily was
not a doctor either, she may also have felt it was best to change the
medical terms to non-medical terms.
Another change I noticed in chapter 7 of PSWG/chapter 4 BEWG, is that the number
of school children examined was changed from twenty thousand to several
thousand.
Read PSWG
You can get a free download of the original
1920 edition of Perfect Sight Without Glasses, and you can even buy an
actual first edition hardcover book,
of which I sometimes have a few in stock.
Further information?
As I said at the very top, this page is mainly for the true Bates
aficionado. If you are one (you must be, having read this far!) and
you have further information about the various original editions of PSWG
(not the many reprints of BEWG after 1943), then please contact
me; I look forward to talking with you!
(back to top)
|
