fix attention

Requires much effort to fix attention while counting drops.

A twinge of pain at right infraorbital foramen, gradually increases; cannot fix attention on what I am reading.

Do not subordinate the purely fanciful and naturalistic elements of the story, such as the love of mystery, the passion for roving, the sense of fellowship with the animal world, in order to fix attention solely on the moral element.

Neat attendants silently glide about the orderly and silent tables, the lookers-on move or stop as the fancy takes them; comments in whispers on face such a number, from such a window, are p. 55not unfrequent—many of the faces are of a character to fix attention. 

It enables critics to fix attention on the precise value of the proposed remedy instead of discussing whether the suggested reform is necessary.