e person is of such an age, as to be capable of observing
directions, place him directly before you, and let him close the
undistorted eye, and look at you with the other; when you find the
axis of this fixed directly upon you, bid him endeavour to keep it in
that situation, and open the other eye; you will now see the
distorted eye turn away from you towards his nose, and the axis of
the other will be pointed towards you, but with patience and repeated
trials he will, by degrees, be able to keep the distorted eye fixed
upon you, at least for some time after the other is opened, and when
you have brought him to keep the axis of both eyes fixed upon you, as
you stand directly before him, it will be time to change his posture,
and set him, first a little to one side of you, and then to the
other, and so practise the same thing. And when, in all these
situations, he can perfectly and readily turn the axes of both eyes
towards you, the cure is effected. An adult person may practice all
this before a mirror, without a director, though not so easily as
with one: but the older he is, the more patience will be necessary.

With regard to the success of this method, M. Buffon says, that
having communicated his scheme to several persons, and, among others,
to M. Bernard de Jussieu, he had the satisfaction to find his opinion
confirmed by an experiment of that gentleman, which is related by Mr.
Allen, in his Synopsis Universae Medicinae. Dr. Jurin tells us that
he had attempted a cure in this manner with flattering hopes of
success, but was interrupted by the young gentleman's falling ill of
the small pox, of which he died. Dr. Reid likewise tried it with
success on three young gentlemen, and had brought them to look
straight when they were upon their guard. Upon the whole this seems
by much the most rational method of attempting to cure the deformity.

The only remaining morbid affections of the eye which I shall take
notice of in this lecture, are two, which produce the indistinct
vision of an object, by directly opposite means. The first is caused
by the cornea, and crystalline, or either of them, being too convex,
or the distance between the retina and crystalline being too great.
It is evident, that from any of these causes, or all combined, the
distinct picture of an object, at an ordinary distance, will fall
before the retina, and therefore the picture on the retina itself
must be confused, which will render the vision conf