Henry Rawlinson

The picture above is of Henry Creswicke Rawlinson, famous for deciphering Persian cuneiform. What does it have to do with eyesight, you might ask? Actually, I want you to notice his eyes. It’s not a photograph but his eyes look so vivid and definitely not myopic in spite of hours that he (supposedly) spent working on unknown script. He was also a British military officer so my guess is he spent lots of time outside looking at the distance. Anyway, I think this portrait is exceptional. Here’s the man with perfect vision in spite of hours of doing close work. Somehow he avoided near-point stress. He should be an inspiration to all of us.

I think it's a good idea to put a portrait of somebody with a perfect vision where you can look at it often. Dr. Bates noticed that people's sight is affected by surroundings that included other people. That's why children of myopic parents are often grow up to be myopic. They pick up a staring habit from their parent. It does not happen every time but unfortunately often enough to give a rise to the false idea that myopia is genetic.

The way I see it myopic people developed a habit of staring/straining when looking at the distance and "relaxing" the muscle when doing close work when it should be the other way around. Even Bates himself admitted that the eye in the relaxed state is designed for looking at the distance: the ciliary muscle is relaxed and the lens inside the eye is flat. Dr. Bates in his book has some interesting photographs of people who stare and who don’t, sometimes even the same person (see online version of the book).