who recovered his Sight when Seven Tears of Age. 385 
success which followed this operation, I was induced to retract 
the opinion which I had formerly sent to Master W/s father, 
(which opinion I had given under the impression that the cata- 
ract should be extracted,) and I now proposed, that an attempt 
should be made to afford relief to one eye, at least, without fur- 
ther loss of time; this attempt, in the way above mentioned, 
being practicable with as much safety at his present age as at 
any future period ; and, if it proved successful, it would give the 
young gentleman the benefit of vision five or six years sooner 
than his friends had been encouraged to expect, by my former 
letter on this subject. They were naturally much pleased with 
this alteration in my advice ; and the child himself appearing to 
possess a great degree of fortitude, I performed the operation on 
the left eye, on the 29th of December last, in the presence of 
Mr. Chamberlayne, F. A. S. Doctor Bradley, of Baliol Col- 
lege, Oxford, and Mr. Platt, surgeon, in London. It is not 
necessary, in this place, to enter into a description of the opera- 
tion. It will be sufficient to say, that the child, during its per- 
formance, neither uttered an exclamation, nor made the smallest 
motion, either with his head or hands. The eye was immedi- 
ately bound up, and no inquiries made on that day with regard 
to his sight. On the 30th, I found that he had experienced a 
slight sickness on the preceding evening, but had made no com- 
plaint of pain, either in his head or eye. On the 31st, as soon 
as I entered his chamber, the mother, with much joy, informed 
afflicted with the disorder later in life. In consequence either of some remaining opa- 
city in the crystalline capsule, which hinders the free admission of the rays of light, or 
of a greater tenuity in the remaining humours of the eye, children require, in general, 
a much deeper convex glass to enable them to see minute objects; and, at the same 
time, they are obliged to hold them much nearer their eyes than older persons. 
MDCCCI, 3 D 
