Refractive Surgery Blog

In my last blog posting (July 13, 2007), I mentioned that monovision correction had been around since the Johnson Administration. I have since learned that a form of monovision has been around since around the 13th century B.C. Pirates or Sea Peoples apparently used a form of monovision when they threatened the Aegean Sea during ancient times.

When you think of a pirate, the image of a peg-legged, hook-armed eye-patched sailor comes to mind. While one can understand how loss of a limb might have been very common on the high seas, it is hard to conceive of that many pirates losing an eye. In fact, according to pirate folklore, pirates covered one eye on purpose to keep it dark adapted for night vision. When a sailor went from being in the bright sun into the dark hold below, the patch would be switched to the fellow eye and there would be no delay in the time it took to recover his vision. Pirates moved about their ship freely and efficiently but did so with poor depth perception.

If you are interested in finding out more on this topic, an episode of Mythbusters recently aired on the discovery channel addressing this very subject. Part of the pirate episode is posted on the internet. Check it out on YouTube.

Stuart Lewis, MD

Labels: Monovision