Education
Bates graduated Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in 1881 and received his medical degree at Columbia University"s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1885.
Bates graduated Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University in 1881 and received his medical degree at Columbia University"s College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1885.
The efficacy of the method is questionable, and his theory that the eye does not focus by changing the power of the lens, but rather by elongating the eyeball, through use of the extraocular oblique muscles, was contradicted by mainstream ophthalmology and optometry of his day and still is today. He formulated a theory about vision health, and published the book Perfect Sight Without Glasses in 1920, and the magazine Better Eyesight from 1919 to 1930. Parts of Bates" approach to correcting vision disorders were based on psychological principles, which were contrary to many of the medical theories of the time and remain southern
The Bates Method still enjoys some limited acceptance as a modality of alternative medicine.
Bates treated many patients, who claimed to have been cured of vision defects, especially myopia. This brought him into conflict with his peers.
Bates appears to have suffered from a strange episode of amnesia (or possibly psychogenic fugue), referred to in his obituary, perhaps wrongly as "a strange form of aphasia". This episode was said to have given him a particular interest in memory, perhaps influencing the direction of his work.
Bates did other research.
He discovered the astringent and haemostatic properties of the substance produced by the suprarenal gland, and its value in medicine, especially in surgeries. The substance would later be commercialized as adrenaline.
He defended himself by claiming that other physicians were in thrall to the establishment.