without the Assistance of Art. 27 



having been cured by nature aloue. I am about to speak 

 here of the restoration of sight from a cause not hitherto 

 observed, and of which medical men may take advantage. 



Twenty years ago, M. Bouhole, a physician at Liege, 

 wrote to me to take charge of a lady of that place affected 

 with a double cataract, and to assist at the operation which 

 was about to be performed upon her by M. Grandjean. 

 This lady was completely blind. I assisted at the operation 

 performed upon her by this celebrated oculist. The cry- 

 stalline of the right eye was completely and very easily ex- 

 tracted ; but the oculist having found some obstacles to 

 the extraction of the left crystalline, he thought of deferring 

 the operation to another time ; after having, however, made 

 an anterior incision upon the capsules of the crystalline, as 

 well the capsule which is in common to it with the vitreous 

 humour, as that which is proper to it. 



The operation w. s attended with the happiest success; 

 the lady recovered her sight in her right eye, the one upon 

 which the operation was performed, and she returned home. 

 About two years afterwards, M. Bouhole wrote to us that 

 the lady not only saw extremely well with the eye which 

 had been operated upon, but also that she began to see with 

 the other eye upon which the operation had not been finished : 

 he added, that she perceived a circle of light, the edges of 

 which were progressively enlarged ; and that they continued 

 to enlarge more and more, in proportion as the middle of the 

 circle, which was black, diminished ; and that she conse- 

 quently saw better and better. 



Grandjean and I believed that this restoration of sight was 

 produced from the edges of the crystalline having regained 

 their pellucid property, and that the more this property was 

 acquired, the sight became more distinct and more directly 

 extended ; and, in fact, we hoped that the black substance 

 which the patient always saw bei'ore her eye had entirely 

 disappeared. In order, however, to assist the operations of 

 nature, we thought it ri^ht to prescribe for the patient every 

 morning for three months some aperients, and among othcn, 

 four ounces of syrup of cresses and 100 or <J00 millepedes 

 bruised while alive. Tbe patient did not make use of these 

 1 medicines, 



