BOWMAN LECTURE. 



LXXXVII 



(Fig. 16), shown at a recent meeting here,*" I owe to the 

 kindness of Mr. Gunn and Mr. Leslie Paton; for a third, 

 shown at the same meeting, I am indebted to Mr. 

 Treacher Collins (Tomes family), and I know of others. 

 The mode of descent is the same as in lamellar cataract. 

 Although coralliform cataract is probably not very rare it 

 has been apt to escape differential observation, its features 

 not being prominent, whilst the characteristic trumpet- 

 like or tube- like opacities are often intermingled with 

 a number of discrete dots and spots of opacity. It is 

 generally looked upon as congenital because it has been 



seen several times in children, and only progresses with 

 extreme tardiness ; a middle-aged subject of the disease 

 calls himself " short-sighted," and cannot remember ever 

 seeing better ; in old age nuclear haze is apt to increase 

 the difficulty. We have, however, no record of coralliform 

 cataract having been seen before the age of eighteen 

 months. f Moreover, the average number and size of the 



* T.O.S., xxix (1909). 



f In the Betts' pedigree (R.L.O.H., xvi, p. 218, Case 58) Gen. IV, 23 

 was operated upon for the cataract at two years of age, his brother, IV, 

 22, at three years, and another brother, IV, 21 at about five. V, 12 was 

 also operated upon at the age of five. IV 11, who died at eighteen 

 months of age, was reported by other members of the family to have 

 had cataract like the others. 



