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 confused and indistinct; whence, in order to see things distinctly, people whose eyes are so formed are obliged to bring the object very near their eyes; by which means the rays fall upon the eye in a more diverging state, so that a distinct picture will be formed on the retina, by which the object will be distinctly seen: from the circumstance of such persons being obliged to hold objects near their eyes, in order to see them distinctly, they are called short sighted. If a short sighted person look at an object through a small hole made in a card, he will be able to see even remote objects, with tolerable distinctness, for this lessens the circles of dissipation on the retina, and thus lessens the confusion in the picture. For the same purpose, we commonly observe short sighted people, when they wish to see distant objects more distinctly, almost shut their eye lids: and it is from this, says Dr. Porterfield, that short sighted persons were anciently called myopes.