[ '3' ] 



of the cryftalline is conftantly followed by its opacity, as numbers 

 of experiments prove, many of which are •within my own knowledge-, 

 and a feverc comprefTion of it will produce the fame effcdt. This 

 lens, when fairly difchargcd from its capfula, and lodged under 

 the vitreous humour, infenfibly waftes away* ; but I have had proofs 

 that when it flips into tiie aqueous liquor this is by no means 

 the cafe. A difcafed cryftalline, whether hard or foft, is con- 

 ftantly found fmaller than a found one, and its capfula or 

 covering, it may be affirmed, whilji entire, is always tranfparent, 

 let the flate of its interpofed body be what it may. A wound 

 of this membrane foon heals, and though by it Morgagni's liquor 

 may cfcape, yet it alfo becomes foon recruited. Both thefc 

 INTERESTING FACTS are proved by couching; for if you fail 

 of depreffing the cataradt ever fo often, yet you may at length 

 fucceed ; and though you fhould fail in this, yet you are certain 

 to remove the opacity by extraSlion, which could never happen 

 did not the different wounds of this capfula heal, and the enclofed 

 liquor regenerate. 



We will now fuppofe a perfon prefents himfelf for the 

 operation ; the cataradi is of a pearl colour, greyifh or white ; 

 the eye feels plump, the pupilla contrads and dilates, and the 

 patient diflinguifhes light and darknefs ; a better conditioned 

 catarad cannot offer, nor a fairer for deprefTion. Let us now 

 fee what are the real, not imaginary, obflacles to the fuccefs of the 



* Philofophkal Tranfaftions for 1730, No. 384. 



S a operation ; 



