RECOVERED. PROM BLINDNESS. $£ 



inftruments, which is fometimes neceflary in extracting the 

 cataract; and, even at this age, the eyes of fome are fo fmall, 

 and in fuch a conftant rolling motion, that it is almoft impof- 

 iible properly to accomplifh the operation. The Portuguese 

 lad, whole cafe has been related, afforded an inftance of this 

 kind ; and I confider it as a fortunate circumftance that itcame 

 under my notice, fince, in fome degree, it may be faid to have 

 obliged me to examine, more attentively than I had before 

 done, the advantages and difadvantages of the operation of 

 depreffion ; which operation, being more eafy to perform than 

 that of extraction, has certainly this advantage in the cafes 

 of children, (to which alone I here advert,) that it may be 

 performed with equal fafety when they are only {&ven years 

 of age, as it may at any fubfequent period of their lives. 



It is well known that the late Mr. Pott, who publimed his Pott favoured 

 remarks on the cataract in the year 1775, was aftrenuous ad- the ?™& ice °* 



r i • • 11 ii depreffion. 



vocate for this operation ; and, though he appears to me to 

 have much under-rated the advantages of extraction, it mult 

 be allowed that he makes many juft and highly pertinent ob- 

 fervations on the ufe of the couching needle, in thofe cafes 

 where the cataract is foft, or fluid. Mr. Pott conlidered this 

 as a very common flate of the diforder ; and does not make 

 any diftinction between the cataract when it attacks grown 

 perfons, and when children are born with it. In the former 

 cafe, experience inclines me to believe, that the cataract is 

 very rarely fluid, or even foft ; whereas, in the latter, I have 

 always found it, agreeable to the obfervation of the Baron de . 

 Wenzel, in one or other of thefe Hates. Although, therefore, 

 in the cafe of grown perfons, the operation of extraction ap- 

 pears to me to have very great advantages over that of de- 

 preffion, yet, in the cafe of children, I can readily accede to Reafons in fup. 

 almoft the whole that Mr. Pott advances in favour of depref- portof Pott * 

 fion. If the couching needle be palTed in the way in which it 

 is ufually introduced to deprefs the cataract, and thereby a 

 large aperture be made in the capfule of the cryftalline, (which 

 operation may be performed with perfect fafety, and with very 

 little pain to the patient, whilft the eye is fixed with a fpecu- 

 lum oculi,) the opaque cryftalline, being thus brought into 

 contact with the aqueous and vitreous humours, will, in a 

 fhorter or longer fpace of time, according to its degree of foft- 

 Vol. I. —* January. F nefs, 



