It has been the common belief among ophthalmologists that the refractive changes in the eyes of children occur in the direction of myopia. As this has not been my impression during routine refraction, it was decided to make a survey of a group of cases in which more than one refraction was done under atropine. The cases reported are from the private practice of Dr. E. V. L. Brown and myself and from the Max Epstein Clinic of the University of Chicago.
There are 124 children in this group, all under 6 years of age. The youngest patient was 10 months old and the oldest 5½ years of age. In 60 per cent of these cases several refractions were done from six to twelve months apart. The final reading was used in this report. The average age of the entire group was 3.95 years when the first determination was made