NET AVERAGE YEARLY CHANGES IN REFRACTION OF ATROPINIZED EYES FROM BIRTH TO BEYOND MIDDLE LIFE

Abstract

Most studies of the changes in the refraction of the eye lack both accuracy and mass of observation. There are two notable exceptions. Steiger¹in 1913 studied hundreds of Swiss school children between 6 and 11 years of age and developed therefrom his biologic theory of inheritance of states of refraction and the changes which take place in the eyes of growing children. The refraction was determined by the "manifest" method, without cycloplegia, and his conclusions are open to criticism on this score. The second study was made by Kempf, Jarman and Collins²for the United States Public Health Service in 1928 on the homatropinized eyes of 1,860 school children, and the results should therefore be more accurate than those of Steiger. A more recent study of the problems connected with defective vision in school children was made on the homatropinized eyes of 2,625 children by twenty-two observers