On the nature and symptoms of cataract : and on the cure of that disease, in its early stages, by a mode of practice calculated to prevent the occurrence of blindness, and to render unnecessary the operations of couching and extraction. Illustrated by cases / by John Stevenson.

  • Stevenson, John, 1778-1846?
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the nature and symptoms of cataract : and on the cure of that disease, in its early stages, by a mode of practice calculated to prevent the occurrence of blindness, and to render unnecessary the operations of couching and extraction. Illustrated by cases / by John Stevenson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    From the above slight sketch it will be readily understood, that if any one of these humours should cease to preserve its natural pellucid character, the function of the eye must be interrupted or destroyed. Now the disease termed Cataract* con¬ sists in an opacity of the central humour, which, on account of its limpidity and fancied resemblance to crystal, and its peculiar geometrical figure, is called the crystalline lens. This body, being situated in the axis of the pupil, must of necessity, in its altered state, oppose itself as a barrier to the admission of the rays of light into the interior of the eye-ball, and produce a degree of blindness propor¬ tionate to the intensity of the opacity. * Cataract is derived from the compound Greek word xarapacraa, deturbo, to confound, becai’se it con¬ fuses the sight. It is also designated by- Hippocrates; *TTroxo/xtx, by Galen; Suffusio, by the Latin, and Gutta opaca, by the Arabian writers.