Optimum and pessimum
In almost all cases of impairment due to abnormalities of refraction of vision, there is an object or objects that can be treated with normal vision. I called such objects optima. On the other hand, there are some objects that people with normal eyes and usually normal vision always see badly. When they are examined, as the retinoscope shows, some anomaly of refraction appears. I called these objects pessimums. The object becomes an optimum or a pessimum, depending on the effect it produces on the psyche. In some cases, this effect is easy to explain.
For many children, the faces of their mothers represent an optimum, and the face of a stranger is pessimum. One dressmaker always managed to pass a thin thread of silk into needle No. 10, without glasses, though she had to wear glasses to sew a button, since she did not see the holes in them. She taught sewing and sewing and considered children stupid because they could not distinguish between the two shades of black. She herself could choose a pair of colors without comparing the samples. And yet this dressmaker could not see the line of black letters in the photocopies of the bible( the letters were not smaller than the thread of silk).She could not remember the black point. One worker in a cooperage who for many years was engaged in the culling of defective barrels, at the moment when they quickly rolled past him on an inclined plane, was able to continue his work after his sight for most other objects deteriorated. At the same time, people with significantly better, judging by the check table, could not find any faulty barrels in sight. Acquaintance with various listed objects gave these people the opportunity to look at them without stress, that is, without the effort to see them. Consequently, the barrels were optima for the controller, and the needle needle and the color of silk and fabrics for the dressmaker. On the contrary, unfamiliar objects are always pessimisms.
In other cases, a feature of the brain that makes one object a pessimum, and another optimum, is difficult to explain. It is also impossible to explain such a fact when an object can be an optimum for one eye and not be it for another, or be an optimum at one time and at the same distance and not be it under other circumstances. Among these strange optima one often encounters one letter in the test table. For example, one of my patients could see the letter "K" on the lines of forty, fifteen and ten, but could not see any other letters on those lines, although most patients, because of the simplicity of the contours, would probably see some of them better than thisletter, like "K".
Pessimums can be as inexplicable and strange as optimums. The letter "V" is so simple in its contours that many people are able to see it, although they can not see other letters on the same line. At the same time, some people can not distinguish it at any distance, although they are able to read other letters in the same word or in the same line of the check table. Others not only can not recognize the letter "V" in the word, but also to read any word containing it, this is a pessimum, impairing sight for both itself and for other objects.
Some letters or objects become pessimistic only in certain situations. A letter, for example, may be a pessim, being located at the end or beginning of a line or sentence and not being in other places. When the patient's attention is drawn to the fact that the letter that is visible in one location, according to the logic of things, should be seen well also in other places, the letter often ceases to be a pessim in any situation.
Pessimum like an optimum can then disappear, then appear. It can vary depending on the lighting and distance. An object that is a pessimum in moderate illumination can cease to exist if the illumination increases or decreases. Pessimum at a distance of 20 feet can cease to be at a distance of two or thirty feet, and some object that is a pessimum when viewed directly can be seen with normal vision in the peripheral field of vision.
For most people, the checklist is pessimum. If you can see it with normal vision, then in this world you can see almost everything you want. Patients who can not see the letters on the checklist are often able to see other objects of the same size and from the same distance with normal sight. When bad or even invisible letters are considered at all, or when a person does not realize their vision, the refraction anomaly increases. A person can look at a clean white surface without any refraction anomaly, but if he looks at the lowest part of the check table that seems to him as clean as a clean empty surface, there is always a refraction anomaly. If you close the visible letters of the check table, the result will be the same. In short, the pessimum can be letters or objects, the vision of which a person does not realize. This phenomenon is very common.
When a check table is visible in the peripheral field of vision, it can impair vision for the point at which the view is directed. For example, a person can from afar view a piece of green wallpaper and see their color as well as from a close distance. But if a test table is placed next to the area under consideration, the letters on which are seen poorly or not at all, then the retino-skop can show the presence of an abnormality of refraction. When vision improves, the number of letters on the checklist that are pessimums is reduced, and the number of optima increases until the entire test table becomes an optimum.
Pessimum, like an optimum, is a manifestation of mental processes. It is somehow connected with the effort to see, whereas the optimum is that which has nothing to do with tension. Pessimum is not caused by a certain anomaly of refraction, but always causes some refraction anomaly. When the voltage decreases, it ceases to be a pessimum and becomes an optimum.