336 
ON CATARACTS. 
cl iateiy on the lines, would not have a good effect in such despe- 
rate cases; or putting a ligature round one or both carotids, as 
the parts mostly inflamed (in this case) derive their blood from 
these vessels. I may add, that she was in high condition, and that 
this was her first calf. 
ON CATARACTS. 
By Mr. W. A. Cartwright, V.S., Whitchurch. 
It is now seven years since I called the attention of the vete- 
rinary public to the probable formation of cataracts without in- 
flammation, and also to the occasional absorption of capsular 
ones ; and as M r. Hales and Mr. Hickman never saw such a case, 
and the latter doubting that it ever takes place, I will lay before 
your readers the following quotation on the subject of absorption 
of cataracts in the human subject. 
It is probable, since I mooted the point, that many may have 
observed such cases, and of which I should be most happy to 
hear a little more, as my only object is truth, and not to bolster 
up a favourite theory. 
“Nor am I hasty in recommending the operation in cases of 
cataract from external injury, as blows or punctures of the cornea ; 
having been led from experience to form the same opinion of the 
disease, when originating under such circumstances, which the 
late Mr. Pott entertained. (See Pott’s Chirurgical Works, 8vo, 
vol. iii, p. 230). 
“ I apprehend that, in such cases, the capsule of the crystalline 
lens is generally the seat of the disease ; and I have had the 
pleasure of seeing the opacity disappear gradually, without the 
use of any other means than those which were proper for remov- 
ing inflammation. Such an event, however, does not always 
follow ; and sometimes, where the sight is ultimately restored with- 
out an operation, the restoration advances by very slow degrees. 
My late colleague at the General Infirmary, Mr. Lucas, relates a 
case (see Med . Obs. a)id Inquiries, vol. vi, p. 264), in which 
* the opacity began to dissipate in a month’ after the accident, 
which was a blow upon the eye, ‘and in three months the patient 
could see with that nearly as well as the other eye.’ I have 
seen two cases, where the opacity continued a year before the 
natural transparency of the capsule began to be restored. In 
one case of this kind which I saw, the patient had been blind of 
the injured eye four years before the opacity began to disappear. 
