From the Library

“The most important news, however, was that Aldous, on a visit to the oculist has demonstrated near-normal vision. Huxley had told Harold Raymond, two months earlier that Bates exercises had raised his vision from 15% of normal to 50% and further improvement was expected. “I am already doing all my reading (as much as two hours a day or more) without glasses, which is rather remarkable. When he delivered the manuscript of After Many A Summer in August he claimed that: “I wrote it and revised the script (always a very trying job) without spectacles—a remarkable tribute to the efficacy of the eye-training I have been taking.” He was, however, using a typewriter with a large typeface to make this assertion. In a long account of the details of the improvement sent to Julian, he claimed to be able to read the seventy-foot line on the eye chart at six feet. He claimed the scar-tissue was clearing up and hoped that the bad eye would get up to the level that the good eye used to be.” (

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Herbal and botanical medicine has been used for centuries. In many countries there is increasing use of these medications with little available information about their effects …