who recovered his Sight when seven Tears of Age. 395 
not preclude the performance of extraction afterwards, if this 
be thought adviseable. 
Fifthly, The operation above mentioned being much more 
easy to perform than that of extraction, and it being possible to 
fix the eye with perfect safety during its performance, by means 
of a speculum oc.uli, it may be undertaken at a much earlier age 
than the latter operation ; and a chance may of course be given 
to the patient, of receiving instruction, without that loss of time 
which has usually been thought unavoidable, when children are 
bom with this disorder.* 
• It ought to be mentioned, that about a month after the above mentioned operation 
on Master W.’s left eye, I performed a similar operation on the right eye of the same 
young gentleman. Although he behaved with great firmness on the first occasion, it 
was not without considerable difficulty that his head was kept steady on the second. 
The operation, however, gave him very little pain, and no inflammation followed ; but 
the opacity afterwards was not diminished ; and he did not acquire any additional sight 
from this eye. There was an evident mark in that part of the capsule where the couch- 
ing needle pierced it; though the aperture was too small to admit a sufficient number 
of rays of light to give an idea of objects. It seems probable that the want of success, 
in this instance, was owing to an opacity in the capsule, which was incapable of being 
absorbed. The eye, however, is as fit to have the aperture in the capsule enlarged, or 
a portion of it removed, when the patient is of a proper, age, as if no operation had been 
previously performed. 
I beg leave also to add, that since these pages were put together, a case has come 
under my care, which seems to afford a confirmation of the remarks that have been 
offered respecting the state of the cataract in children, and the effects that are likely 
to be produced by the operation of puncturing the capsule that contains it. A young 
lady, eighteen years old, was put under my care, who had been blind from an early 
part of her infancy. She had a cataract completely formed in both eyes ; and in each 
there were three or four opaque spots, more white than the rest, which seemed to lie 
on the surface of the opaque crystalline. I punctured the capsule of each with a 
couching needle, according to the proposition in the preceding pages, in the presence 
of Mr. Scott, surgeon, in St. AlbanVstreet. The operation gave her no pain ; and, 
in the course of a few days, the opacity was evidently diminished, particularly in the right 
eye, the patient discovering the colour of objects more plainly than before, but being still 
3 E 2 
