gga Mr. Ware’s Case of a young Gentleman, 
are old enough to be made sensible of the loss they sustain by the 
want of sight, and have firmness of mind to submit patiently to 
the means that are requisite in order to obtain it. Influenced by 
this opinion of the Baron, and believing the operation of extrac- 
tion to be so much superior to that of depression, that the latter 
ought not, on any occasion, to have the preference, I have given 
advice, in the cases of a considerable number of children who were 
born with this disorder, to postpone every attempt to relieve them, 
until they were thirteen or fourteen years old. Prior to this time, 
it did not appear to me that children could be depended upon 
to submit, with due steadiness, to the repeated introduction of 
instruments, which is sometimes necessary in extracting the ca- 
taract ; and, even at this age, the eyes of some are so small, and 
in such a constant rolling motion, that it is almost impossible 
properly to accomplish the operation. The Portuguese lad, 
whose case has been related, afforded an instance of this kind ; 
and I consider it as a fortunate circumstance that it came under 
my notice, since, in some degree, it may be said to have obliged 
me to examine, more attentively than I had before done, the 
advantages and disadvantages of the operation of depression ; 
which operation, being more easy to perform than that of ex- 
traction, has certainly this advantage in the cases of children, 
(to which alone I here advert,) that it may be performed with 
equal safety when they are only seven years of age, as it may 
at any subsequent period of their lives. 
It is well known that the late Mr. Pott, who published his 
remarks on the cataract in the year 1775, was a strenuous ad- 
vocate for this operation ; and, though he appears to me to have 
much under-rated the advantages of extraction, it must be al- 
lowed that he makes many just and highly pertinent observa- 
