Some points in the pathology of cataract / by William Job collins.

  • Collins, William Job, 1859-1946.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Some points in the pathology of cataract / by William Job collins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    believe that the opacification spreads less quickly through a lens under such circumstances than when the first departure from pellucidity is nuclear or is anteriorly placed. As an illustration of what I mean, and of the rapid influence of iridectomy in accelerating maturation, I may cite the case of a gentleman who was the secretary of a well-known microscopical society. He was 51 in 1886, when he consulted me about his eyes, his sight had then been failing for twelve years. His vision was reduced in the left eye to 6/60, and with the right eye he could count fingers at three feet; he was unable to use his microscope, which was to him a great deprivation. His lenses exhibited posterior opacities at the pole, and concave striao proceeding arc-wise therefrom, there was apparently some axial myopia. The cataracts were in a condition, then accounted too unripe for extraction, but ripe enough to excommunicate their unfortunate possessor from most of the pleasures of his life. On October 8th, 1886, I did a preliminary iridectomy on the right eye, and on January 7th, 1887, the cataract to all appearances being perfectly ripe, I extracted it, with a resulting vision of J. 1, and 6/9, with glasses. I had • occasion to see the patient again some eight years afterwards, and found the other eye practically in statu quo, red reflex could still be obtained, and the • anterior hemisphere of the lens was for the most part pellucid. He had resumed his favourite investigations of diatoms with the microscope with the operated eye, and was so well satisfied with it that he would not yield to my suggestion to deal similarly with the other. • This case enforces the slow maturation of cataracts of this class, and their rapid ripening by iridectomy, and indicates the mode of escape from the intolerable
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