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Presbyopia's Finest Hour
Ronald S. Fishman, MD
Arch Ophthalmol. 2002;120:65-66.
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| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
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In March 1783, with the last peace negotiations all but final, an incident
occurred that might have defeated the American Revolution at the last minute.
The officers of the Continental Army had not been paid for almost 5 years.
A conspiracy arose among the officers to coerce the Continental Congress to
provide them benefits it had previously promised. George Washington recognized
that if the army could intimidate Congress, this precedent would be fatal
for the prospects of the new republic. He met with the agitated, hostile officers
and tried to reason with them without success. Then, in a piece of high political
theater involving his spectacles, he broke up the conspiracy within a few
minutes.
Counterfactual history is a game one can play that underlines the importance
of contingency in events. What if Abraham Lincoln had not been reelected in
1864? Would the secession of the . . . [Full Text of this Article]
From Johns Hopkins University, Institute of the History of Medicine,
Baltimore, Md.
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