EYES THAT ARE OFF FOCUS

If you have an eye or pair of eyes that slip in or out, up or down, at odds with one another, the first thing you must do is to get them swinging true and together.

When eyes turn off-focus, common belief is that one group of muscles is too short, the opposing group too long; hence, the eye needs the short muscle cut and needs a tuck taken in the long one. Yet we have it on reliable medical authority that under the complete relaxation of anaesthesia crossed eyes become temporarily straight. This would prove that the length of the muscles is not involved; also, that when relaxed, the muscle contraction that pulls the eye off-focus gives way and permits the eye to resume its normal position.

So, you with the cramped eye muscle that drags your eye off-focus, learn to relax that muscle without anaesthetic and it will stop pulling your eye away. Most people with such eyes know that at times the muscle pull is greater while at other times it is very slight, but they do not realise this difference to be due to the amount of tension or relaxation possessed at one time or another. Will you be willing to work for better alignment of your eyes and better vision? It will be work and requires determination and persistence.

A cramped or convulsed muscle that will loosen under artificial relaxation can fortunately be taught to loosen by conscious relaxation. If relaxation is practised until it becomes a subconscious habit, it is permanent. The problem resolves itself into keeping the eyes relaxed or in alignment, and teaching them to see better that way.

Remove your glasses, do all the relaxation swings and drills described in the first part of the book, both the retinal nerves in the -Mused portion of the retina, the part of the eye from which you see most poorly. To reach this portion, you must cover the other eye-with a hood or patch and work the weaker one. Wear the patch for very short periods and only for the easiest and most familiar seeing until the vision improves. Otherwise you may become nervous and fatigued. You will notice great improvement if you have the desire and determination to practice earnestly each day. Accent the sunning and the palming!

The dullest portion of the retina in a crossed eye is its centre of sight, the macula. This dullness results from long disuse, hence lack of stimulation. The macula nerves can be stimulated only when the eye is relaxed and while it is in motion; that is, when it is shifting, an involuntary and unconscious activity. How to get the eye to shift? Here is a suggestion.

Turn the page of the book lengthwise so that the lines of print run up and down instead of across. Patch one eye. Hold the page before the crossed eye, quite close, and in the direction toward which you wish to direct the eye. If the eye turns in, you would hold the

page by the temple. If the eye turns out, you would, hold the page in front of the covered eye so that the miscreant would have to look over your nose to shift. With a gentle head swing travel back and forth across the page until the lines and spaces click by like a picket fence. Close the eye and remember what you saw, Continuing the gentle head swing. Open and see it mental and physical drills. Take care to direct your seeing toward the side to which you wish to coax the eye. Add the following swing: