Dr. willian Horatio Bates born 1860 and graduated from med school
1885.  Medical career hampered by spells of total amnesia.  Published in
1920, his great work "The Cure of Imperfect Eyesight by Treatment With-
out Glasses", He made claims about how the eye actually works that are
simply NOT TRUE.  Aldous Huxley was one of the more "high profile"
beleivers in his system.  Mr. Huxley while giving a lecture on Bates system
forgot the lecture that he was supposedely reading and had to put the
paper right up to his eyes and then resorted to a magnifying glass from
his pocket.  book have been written debunking this technique, however
they remain less read than the original fraud.  cheers