For thirty years I have been using the retinoscope to study the refraction of the eye. With it I have examined the eyes of tens of thousands of schoolchildren, hundreds of infants and thousands of animals, including cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, cows, birds, turtles, reptiles and fish – where obviously even cheap contact lenses are not appropriate. I have used it when the subjects were at rest and when they were in motion – also when I myself was in motion – when they were awake and when they were asleep or even under ether or chloroform.
I have used it in the daytime and at night, when the subjects were comfortable and when they were excited; when they were trying to see and when they were not; when they were lying and when they were telling the truth; when the eyelids were partly closed, shutting off part of the area of the pupil; when the pupil was dilated and also when it was contracted to a pinpoint; when the eye was oscillating from side to side, from above downward and in other directions.
