born with Cataracts in their Eyes. 87 
by a strong light, he could make out that it was flat and 
broad ; and when one corner of a square substance was pointed 
out to him, he saw it, and could find out the other, which was 
at the end of the same side, but could not do this under less 
favourable circumstances. When the four corners of a white 
card were pointed out, and he had examined them, he seemed 
to know them : but when the opposite surface of the same 
card, which was yellow, was placed before him, he could not 
tell whether it had corners or not, so that he had not acquired 
any correct knowledge of them, since he could not apply it 
to the next coloured surface, whose form was exactly the 
same, with that, the outline of which the eye had just been 
taught to trace. 
CASE 11. 
John Salter, seven years of age, was admitted into St. 
George’s Hospital on the 1st of October, 1806, under my 
care, with cataracts in both eyes, which according to the ac- 
counts of his relations had existed from his birth. 
After he was received into the hospital, the following cir- 
cumstances were ascertained respecting his vision. The pupils 
contracted considerably when a lighted candle was placed 
before him, and dilated as soon as it was withdrawn. He was 
capable of distinguishing colours with tolerable accuracy, par- 
ticularly the more bright and vivid ones. 
On the 6th of October the left eye was couched. This 
operation was preferred to extraction, from a belief that the 
cataracts were not solid, and as the injury done to the capsule 
by the operation would be less, there was not the same 
chance of inflammation, the disposition for which, had been so 
