Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen ... for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia.

  • Royal Hospital for Seamen at Greenwich
Date:
1814
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Official papers relating to operations performed by order of the directors of the Royal Hospital for Seamen ... for the purpose of ascertaining the general efficacy of the new modes of treatment practised by Mr. Adams, for the cure of the various species of cataract, and the Egyptian ophthalmia. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    iieral success ol the operation exceeds all credibility witli those who have been in the habit of witnessing the results of otlier modes of practice. Of upwards of Eighty Persons born blind of Cataracts, upon whom I have performed this 0])eration, 1 have not lost an Eye. In three instances alone, in which 1 was prevented from repeating the Operation, it did not produce the antici- pated benetit; anti 1 should consider myself unfortunate were 1 at any time to be less successful in an equal number of persons who became blind from Cataracts alter birth, provided they admitted of being treated in the manner already described, and the health of the Patients was in a state favourable for the operation. Hence arises a very important question: To what pe- riod of life does this particular practice apply? To which I have a ready answer; That 1 have 7iever failed in being enabled to effect this necessary division in per- sons under fort^ j/ears of age; very rarely in those be- tween ^br/y and f ftj/, and have frequently succeeded in persons in the most advanced periods of life. Where the Cataract is too hard and solid to admit of this immediate division, I do not attempt, as was my former practice, to ellect its absorption by a frequent repetition of the operation ; but 1 at once extract it. This, however, is accomplished by a process totally differefU from that I have felt it a duty to deprecate; a process which 1 must claim to be novel, and which happily attains the highly important desiderata which had been hitherto considered unattainable, while it ob- viates the many causes of failure which rendered the usual mode of Extraction so generally unsuccessful. From the principle upon which it is founded, and the favourable results of its termination during the last two years that 1 have extensively practised it, I feel myself