LXXXIT BOWMAN LECTURE. 



three months of age, the history being perfectly clear that 

 the opacity had been seen by the parents at fourteen days 

 old, the child not having opened its eyes until then. 



In another family of lamellar cataracts, one of the 

 mothers (Fig. 11; 'Gen. Ill, 3), told me that she had 

 seen the cataract within an hour or two of birth in more 

 than one of her children, and as in some of them there was 

 a conspicious white opacity at the anterior pole of the 

 front layer, almost filling the pupil, I have no doubt she 

 was correct in her observation. 



After writing the above I had the opportunity of seeing 

 the newly born male infant of a cataractous brother of 

 the above woman (Fig. 11 ; Gen. 1Y, 14a), and found 

 the usual small, perfectly well defined lamellar cataract, 

 of about 4'5 mm., in both eyes exactly a week after birth 

 (child born April 19th, eyes examined under mydriatic 

 on the 26th) ; the cortex was clear so far as a moderately 

 exhaustive examination in the mother's bedroom allowed 

 one to see. Here also there was a dense anterior polar 

 opacity which had been seen by the nurse and mother as 

 soon as the baby's face was cleaned after birth * In 

 another case of typical small, dense, lamellar opacity 

 (Dearsley) the clear testimony was that the opacity had 

 been seen the day after birth. Lamellar cataract has 

 doubtless been seen repeatedly at less than one year old.t 

 Some of the small lamellar opacities have no doubt been 

 described as congenital nuclear or perinuclear cataract. 



The condition of the enamel of the permanent teeth in 

 a patient with lamellar cataract helps us indirectly to 

 decide the time at which the opacity was formed. It is 



* Later still, on July 3rd, I examined IV, 19 in the same pedigree, a 

 female born on June 19th, i. e. get. 14 days, and found precisely similar^ 

 small, lamellar cataracts. On the same occasion I was told that IV, 15a, 

 born in September, 1908 (after my original visit, which was in August), 

 was certainly affected ; it was a feeble baby and died in May ; my 

 informants were the mother, III, 10 and III, 11, who live in the same 

 village, and may both be counted as skilled observers for this purpose. 

 E. N., July llth, 1909. 



t See R.L.O.H., xvi, p. 228, Case 65, for such an example. 



