On Ike Resloraiion of Vision. 1 13 



surpassed mv most sanguine expectations. I observed that she 

 was capable of seeing much more distinctly without convex 

 glasses than is usual for persons who have undergone the opera- 

 tion for cataract, wliile, with a convex glass, she could read small 

 print without anv difliculty. Not being abie to ascertain the de- 

 gree of vision which this patient experienced previously to the 

 removal of tlie cataracts, nor whether the diseased change had 

 been going on in tiie cornea and crystalline lens at the same 

 time, I necessarilv cannot state the exact amount of the benefit 

 which she derived from tlie operation. This, however, was de- 

 monstrated — that, by the removal of the crystalline lens in eyes 

 affected with conical cornea, nearly perfect vision was restored; 

 while it is well known that, in cases of conical cornea where no 

 cataracts exist, vision is usually as imperfect as if the latter ma- 

 lady formed a part of the patient's disease. 



Tlie favourable result of this operation fully confirming the 

 opinion which induced me to perform it, I determined at the 

 earliest opportunity to try the effect of removing an healthy 

 crystalline lens, as a remedy for blindness produced by conical 

 cornea. A favourable case presented itself the following year, 

 in a young woman, who, during six years, found her sight gra- 

 dually decreasing, and, at the expiration of that period, had be- 

 come so blind, from this disease, as to be unable to continue her 

 e;nplovment as a servant, and was in consequence obliged to 

 applv for parochial maintenance. Shortly afterwards she was 

 sent to an Eye Infirmary in London, where receiving no benefit, 

 she was subsequently brought to me, and solicited in the most 

 urgent terms the trial of iuiy practice, which afforded a prospect 

 of restoring her to sight, I carefully examined her eyes, and 

 found that the cornea of both eyes had assumed the conical form 

 in a great degree, attended by a slight opacity in the apex of 

 each cone, but none whatever in the crystalline lens. She could 

 walk without a guide, and could see at three or four feet distance, 

 so as to avoid running against any person, but had entirely lost 

 the power of reading, or perceiving minute objects, however 

 nearly they were placed to the eyes. 



I effected the removal of the crystalline lens, by causing it to 

 be absorbed, which method of operating is to be preferred to 

 every other hitherto practised, whether the lens be opake or not, 

 in cases where, like the present, it admits of being freely divided. 

 The patient, however, returned to the country before the eye 

 had entirely recovered from the operation, and I did not see her 

 again until nearly twelve months afterwards, when 1 was in the 

 highest degree gratified to find her capable of discovering minute 

 objects, and reading the smallest-sized print, without the assist- 

 ance of a glass, while holding the book at the usual dibtance of 

 Vol.49. No.22G.Fe^. 1817. 11 tea 



