BOWMAN LECTURE. 



LXXXIX 



least sixteen cases of cataract occurred in six generations, 

 the disease as usual behaving like a " dominant." 



It is much to be hoped that someone will collect informa- 

 tion methodically about the minute vacuoles or dots of 

 opacity so often seen in the lenses of the young ; are they 

 congenital, do they run in families, do they lead to cataract, 

 and do they occasion, or only happen to accompany, the 

 asthenopic symptoms from which their owners so often 

 suffer ? 



Such minute changes have been noticed in several 



JSL . 



members of congenital cataract pedigrees who were them- 

 selves free from the definite family complaint (e. g. in the 

 families shown in Figs. 12 and 13). For the present it 

 is uncertain whether such slight alterations are related to 

 the family cataract or are merely accidental. 



Post-natal or acquired cataract (Figs. 18 to 27), is 

 often hereditary, and quite a number of pedigrees have 

 been collected by many observers. A considerable number 

 of these I do not know what true proportion show anti- 

 cipation in generations and sometimes in successive siblings, 



3 



