2»<» S. VII. Fkb. 5. '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



115 



Operation for Cataract (2"'» S. vii. 28.)— There 

 are three or four operations for cataract, but whe- 

 ther either of them owed its origin to the " Mede- 

 cin Anglais nomme Taylor," I do not know. He 

 seems, however, to have been a celebrated operator 

 in his day. I possess a three-quarter portrait of 

 him, with this inscription subjoined : — 



"Johannes Taylor Medicus, In Optica Expertissimus, 

 Multisque In Academiis Celeberrimis Membrum. 



" Effigiem Taylor, tibi qui demissua ab alto est, 



Turba alias expers luminis, ecce vides, 

 Hie maculas tollit, cataractas deprimit omnes, 



Araissum splendens excitat ille jubar. 

 Miranda praxi sublata ophtalmia qusevis 



Artifici dextrse giitta serena cedit, 

 Ecce Virum : cujus cinguntur tempora lauro 



Dignum, cui laudes saecula longa canant." 



Ed. Hart Vinen. 



H. F. B., who inquires about the first introduc- 

 tion of the operation for cataract, seems to imagine 

 that the notorious Chevalier Taylor was one of 

 the earliest operators. The history of this quack 

 is perfectly familiar to all surgeons who are well 

 versed in the annals of their profession. He was 

 perhaps the most thorough-going professor of the 

 art of humbug that ever lived, and carried puffing 

 to an extent which has never since been surpassed. 

 It would be going too far into medical details 

 fully to answer H. F. B.'s Query ; but I may 

 briefly state that there are three ways of curing a 

 cataract by operation, and by no other means can 

 it be cured: — 1. By "couching," or "depres- 

 sion," whereby the opaque lens is thrust aside out 

 of the pupil ; 2. By " solution," the lens being 

 broken up with a needle, and allowed to dissolve ; 

 3. By " extraction," or the removal of the cata- 

 ract bodily out of the eye. The first-named oper- 

 ation is the oldest ; the third was introduced into 

 practice early in the eighteenth century. 



F. P. L., in replying to H. F. B.'s Query, quotes 

 J. da Costa, to the effect that a certain operation 

 performed in Spain, about 1468 or 1469, was the 

 first instance of the operation which has been re- 

 corded in history. It may possibly be the first 

 instance in which the name of the patient is men- 

 tioned, but the origin of the operation itself is lost 

 in antiquity. Celsus (book vii. ch. xiv.), writing 

 in the first century^ fully describes the manner of 

 " couching" a cataract, and speaks of it as one of 

 the recognised and established operations of sur- 

 gery. Jaydee. 



Clergy called Bricklayers (2'"^ S. vi. 528 ; vii. 

 38.) — To whatever extent clergymen are still 

 designated by this title in the counties specified, 

 Oxon and Berks, the designation seems traceable 

 to the important part taken by the mediajval 

 clergy in ecclesiastical architecture. It is well 

 known how in former days the building of cathe- 

 drals and other sacred edifices was patronised 

 and promoted both by dignitaries and by the 



clergy generally ; but it is not perhaps matter of 

 equal notoriety that many chapters and collegiate 

 bodies had a functionary called a workman (opera- 

 rius), on whom devolved the charge of repairing 

 and maintaining the sacred fabric, and who was 

 often one of their own number. In fact, he was one 

 of the dignitaries of the chuixh. " Operarius. 

 Dignitas, in CoUegiis Canonicorum, et Monaste- 

 riis, cui operibus publicis vacare incumbit" (Car- 

 penter). The office of this operarius or workman 

 was called operaria. " Operaria. Dignitas Ope- 

 rarii in collegiis canonicorum et monasteriis " (ift.). 

 In Spain, the clerical operarius was called by the 

 corresponding Spanish name, ohrero (a workman). 

 " Obrero. Se llama tambien el que cuida de las 

 obras, en las Iglesias o Comunldades, que en al- 

 gunas Cathedrales es dignidad" (Dice, de la Ac. 

 JEsp.) ; i. e. in some cathedrals the office made the 

 holder of it a dignitary. Salazar de Mendoza, in 

 his Cronica del Cardenal Don R. G. de MendoQa, 

 tells us that, the Cardinal having conceded to the 

 Chapter of the cathedral at Toledo the administra- 

 tion of the building-fund, the Chapter in 1485 

 nominated as workman (obrero) the Canon Juan 

 de Contreras. (Lib. ii. cap. 62. par. 2.) 



May we not conjecture, then, that, if clergymen 

 are now provincially called "bricklayers," it is 

 because their mediaeval predecessors were, with a 

 special reference to building, called " workmen " ? 

 Possibly, from the appointment of certain eccle- 

 siastics in former days under the name of operarii 

 or workmen, for the repair and maintenance of 

 public edifices in the University of Oxford, the 

 title of " bricklayers " may have passed, in course 

 of time, to the neighbouring clergy of Oxon and 

 Berks. 



The use of bricks, which ceased in this country 

 after the decline of the Roman power, is stated by 

 Hallara to have been reintroduced, probably from 

 Flanders, in the early part of the fourteenth cen- 

 tury. Thomas Boys. 



May not this term be applied to the Oxford 

 clergy with more propriety than in the way sug- 

 gested by Mb. PHiiiLoxx, as referring to the oj/co- 

 Sofj.il Tov (Tw/xaros rod Xpiarov (Eph. iv. 12), trusting 

 that they, like St. Paul, are wise " master buil- 

 ders;" builders on the only true foundation, 

 " which is Jesus Christ." Edify, ajdificare, oIkoSo- 

 /xeiv, have primary reference to houses built with 

 hands, as well as to the spiritual one of building 

 up the Church of Christ. E. S. Tayloe. 



Anonymous Work : " Holy Thoughts," S^c. (2"*^ 

 S. vii. 68.) — Mb. Inglis is wrong in ascribing 

 this book to Coney ; it is another of the works of 

 that curious character, Charles Povey : a kind of 

 companion book to the Holy Thoughts, is the same 

 writer's Meditations of a Divine Soul, or the Chris- 

 tian's Guide, ^c, to which is added an Essay of a 

 Retired Solitary Life, loith an After-thought on 



