DEFECTIVE SIGHT AND SIGHT EDUCATION
Kenneth R. Smith · British Journal of Ophthalmology · 1930
STRABISMUS is described in a very well known text book on diseases of the eye under a section entitled " Disorders of Motility of the Eye."The word itself is defined'as " a general term applied to all those conditions in which the visual axes assume a position relative to each other different from that required by the physiological conditions."When both eyes are directed to the same object, and are seen to follow it when it moves, it is certain that both eyes see it, and that they are in their true physiological position.Thus the physiological conditions of normal human sight are brought about when both eyes fix the same object.The condition of sight in concomitant strabismus is that only one eye fixes the object looked at, and the other does not fix it.The disorder of motility is, therefore, the failure of a movement which should occur under normal conditions, that is, the movement of fixation fails in one eye or in the other.Further, although the power to see with each eye may exist, and in many cases of concomitant strabismus the sight with each eye separately is good, the power to see with both eyes at the same time is absent.This is a matter for observation, not for discussion.Let any child with concomitant strabismus look at an object, a pencil, for example, and ask him how many pencils he sees.His answer is " one."The eye which sees the pencil, fixes it.The eye which does not fix it, does not see it, for there is no double vision, 16