Medical Articles
by W.H. Bates, M.D.
1891-1923

Medical Articles by Dr. W.H. Bates
Around the turn of the 19th century, Dr. Bates wrote 31 medical articles which were accepted and published by major medical journals of that time. The majority (15 of the 30) were published in the New York Medical Journal; eleven were published in various other medical journals; one in the Bridgeport Telegram; and one in Hearst’s International.
In addition three articles were published in French, in La Clinique Ophthalmologique and in Revue Internationale d'Hygiène et de Thérapeutique Oculaires between 1912 and 1921.

These thirty-one articles span most of Dr. Bates’ 45-year career as an ophthalmologist and they reflect the gradual change in his practice: away from the traditional medical methods of his early years as an eye doctor, to the variety of relaxation techniques used during the majority of his long career. By the time he returned to New York from North Dakota in 1911, he had made a complete shift to natural methods for the treatment of all eyesight problems. He spent the next two decades helping his patients improve their sight, while publishing articles and magazines to explain his views and methods.
Being so inquisitive, Dr. Bates stumbled on some other solutions along the way, for example: he discovered adrenaline, and he found the cure for writer's cramp.

Here is the complete list of Dr. Bates' articles:

1891: Improvement in the vision of myopia by treatment without glasses
        New York Medical Journal, April 18, 1891, #53 p455-456
1892: The vision of a case of myopia improved by treatment without glasses
        Virginia Med. Monthly 18:941, 1891-1892, p941-943
1892: Notes on spasms of the accommodation
        New York Medical Journal, June 4, 1892, p632-633
1894: Treatment of myopia without glasses
        The Medical Record, January 27, 1894, p104-106
1894: A suggestion of an operation to correct astigmatism
        Archives of Ophthalmology #23, 1894, p9-13
1896: The use of extract of suprarenal capsule in the eye
        New York Medical Journal, May 16, 1896, p647-650
1898: Suture of the Cornea after Removal of the Lens; an experimental study
        Archives of Ophthalmology, #27: Feb 1898, p181-92
1900: Secondary Cataract; an experimental study
        New York Medical Journal, July 7, 1900, p1-5
1900: The therapeutic properties of the suprarenal capsule
        Journal American Medical Association, 1900 XXXV p346-348
1911: The prevention of myopia in school children *
        New York Medical Journal, July 29, 1911, p237-238
1912: The cause of myopia
        New York Medical Journal, March 16, 1912, p529-532
1912: Eye training for the cure of functional myopia
        New York Medical Journal, May 18, 1912, p1029-1032
1912: A case of myopic refraction relieved by eye education
        Medical Record, November 9, 1912, p851-852
1913: Myopia prevention by teachers
        New York Medical Journal, August 30, 1913, p410-413
1914: Fishes’ Eyes
        Zoological Society Bulletin, p1170-1173
1915: The radical cure of errors of refraction
        New York Medical Journal, May 8, 1915, p925-933
1917: Blindness relieved by a new method of treatment
        New York Medical Journal, February 3, 1917, pp. 200-202
1917: The imperfect sight of the normal eye
        New York Medical Journal, September 8, 1917, p440-442
1918: A study of images reflected from the cornea, iris, lens and sclera
        New York Medical Journal, May 18, 1918, p916-924
1918: Improving the sight of soldiers and sailors and relieving pain
        New York Medical Journal, October 12, 1918, p639-641
1919: Memory as an aid to vision
        New York Medical Journal, May 24, 1919, p890-893
1920: Shifting as an aid to vision
        New York Medical Journal, July 31, 1920, p158-160
1921: A clinical and experimental study of physiological optics
        American Journal of Clinical Medicine, July 1921, p437-443
1921: Imagination and vision
        Journal of the Allied Medical Associations of America, October 1921
1921: Writers’ cramp: its cause and cure
        Medical Record, September 3, 1921, p415-417
1922: Curing eyes without glasses! How? By exercising them
        The Bridgeport Telegram, March 9, 1922
1923: Throw away your glasses
        Hearst’s International, September 1923, p42-43, p128-132
1923: A study of imagination
        Allied Medical Journal, 1923 (unconfirmed date)

1912: De la myopie fonctionnelle
        Revue Internationale d'Hygiène et de Thérapeutique Oculaires, p70-73, May 1912
1912: L’éducation de l’oeil dans l’amblyopie ex anopsia
        La Clinique Ophtalmologique, p631-638, 10 December 1912
1921: La guérison de vision défectueuse sans lunettes
        La Clinique Ophtalmologique. #25, p504-510, September 1921

* Articles listed in bold were included in Reprints, a paperback published by Dr. Bates. These were likely selected by him for containing the information most likely to be helpful to people interested in learning how to improve their own eyesight without glasses.

I believe the above list is complete, yet if you know of other articles by Dr. Bates himself, I would love to hear from you!

During Bates' lifetime other authors also published articles about his methods to improve vision, for example: 'Your Eyesight' by Hereward Carrington, Ph.D., published in Leslie’s Weekly, 21 January 1922. I welcome such articles too, yet I am mainly interested in Dr. Bates' own writings.
If you are keen to jump in and do a search, please be aware that there was a second W.H. Bates M.D. in New York at nearly the same time (a little earlier); this doctor was an otolaryngologist and wrote articles about the ears, not the eyes.

My collection of these articles is available as a PDF file, 3.9MB, 151 pages, for US$20.00. See MEDICAL ARTICLES BY DR. W.H. BATES, 1891-1923

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