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diredion 'till it pafTed through the oppofite fide of this coat. 

 The fide of a fine fciffars was introduced into the firft aperture, 

 and the inferior half of the cornea was divided near the fclero- 

 tica ; another needle opened the cryftalline membrane, and by a 

 gentle prcffure on the globe of the eye the catarad flipped into 

 the aqueous chamber, and fo down the cheek. Such in a few 

 words is Monf David's account of this operation. Succeeding 

 writers have laboured to reduce the operation to greater fimpli- 

 city ; for it was found that, bcfides the cicatrice from the wound, 

 the fqieczing of the blades of the fcifl"ars added confiderably tc^ 

 the opacity. A fimplc inftrument, fomething like an iris knife, 

 has been recommended, and is generally ufed, to perform the 

 entire incifion of the cornea with. 



I M. La Faye diredts the cornea to be pierced at about half 

 a line from the fclerotica, and to pufli it on in a flraight line 

 'till it pafi"es through the oppofite fide, when by a fingle incli- 

 nation of the inftrument the inferior half of the cornea is at once 

 divided ; nor need you fear, fays he, to hurt the iris in traverfing 

 the cornea, as it is plane or flat in its surface, as Dr. 

 Petel demonftrated in the Memoirs of the Academy of Sciences 

 for 1728. Mr. Warner* would have the knife to hcfuJdenly and 

 rejolutely puflied through the cornea, and pafiTed in a flraight line 



:j: Mem. de I'Academie de Chirurgie, torn. vi. p. 304. 

 * Defcription of the Eye, p.ioi. 



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