Consensual accommodation, like other consensual responses, may be a useful diagnostic indicator. The consensual interocular lag (direct accommodative response minus consensual accommodative response) was measured under a variety of accommodative conditions in four normal subjects, one of whom later underwent cryosurgery for a retinal tear. There was no consensual interocular lag when subjects were orthophoric , but when slightly exophoric at near distances a small lag does occur. A subject with large exophorias at near showed a more complex accommodative pattern. The consensual interocular lag proved to be the most sensitive measure of accommodative loss and subsequent recovery after retinal cryosurgery.