64- CASE OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN 



darkeft ftate. When, therefore, their fight is cleared by the 

 removal of the opaque cryftalline, which intercepted the light, 

 and the colour of objetts is thereby made to appear ftronger, 

 will it be difficult or unphilofophical, to conceive that their 

 ideas of diftance will be ftrengthened, and lb far extended as 

 to give them a knowledge, even of the outline and figure of 

 thofe objects with the colour of which they were previoufly 

 acquaiuted ? 

 Chirurgical ob- The cafe which I have here related appears to deferve no- 

 remarks. ^ ce > not: on ty on account of the obfervations that were made 

 by the patient on recovering his light, but alfo on account of 

 the hint which it affords to furgeons, relative both to the mode 

 in which the cataract may belt be removed, when children are 

 born with this diforder, and the time when it is molt proper 

 to perform the operation. 

 In what cafes de- The Baron de Wenzel, in his ingenious Treatife on the Ca- 

 «Smay h be tara <^ with great force of reafoning, deduced from the long 

 preferable to ex- and fuccefsful experience of his father and himfelf, recom- 

 traction. mends, in all cafes of this diforder, without making any excep- 

 tions, the operation of extraction, in preference to that of de- 

 prellion ; and I believe it is now generally acknowledged by 

 medical men, that in the more common cafes, his decifion as 

 to the mode of operating is perfectly well founded. The 

 Baron admits that the operation is not fo certain a cure in chil- 

 dren as it is in perfons of a more advanced age ; both on ac- 

 count of their untractablenefs, and becaufe, in them, the opacity 

 of the cryftalline is not unfrequently accompanied with an opa- 

 city in the capfule that contains it. On thefe accounts, when 

 children are born with this diforder, he advifes to poftpone the 

 operation, until they are old enough to be made fenfible of the 

 Iofs they fuftain by the want of light, and have firninefs of 

 mind to fubmit patiently to the means that are requifite in or- 

 der to obtain it. Influenced by this opinion of the Baron, and 

 believing the operation of extraction to be fo much fuperior to 

 that of depreflion, that the latter ought not, on any occafion, 

 to have the preference, I have given advice, in the, cafes of a 

 confiderable number of children who were born with this dif- 

 order, to poftpone every attempt to relieve them, until they 

 were thirteen or fourteen years old. Prior to this time, it did 

 not appear to me that children could be depended upon to 

 fubmit, with due fteadinefs, to the repeated introduction of 

 4, inftruments, 



