Physiology of Disturbances of Ocular Motility

"In some ways we are so obsessed with the delight and advantage of discovery of new things that we have no proportionate regard for the problems of arrangement and absorption of the things discovered," Sir Josiah Stamp stated in his address as president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1936.1The facts and theories which are here presented are long established and should be better known and made a part of one's thinking about disturbances of ocular motility.1a The anatomy of the parts concerned in ocular movements is well known. Attention is here called only to some anatomic facts which throw light on the widespread erroneous idea that in most cases heterophoria is due toweaknessof one or more of the extra-ocular muscles. The strength of a muscle depends on its cross-section. The amount of its shortening depends on its length. The ocular