A treatise of the cataract and glaucoma : in which the specific definitions of those two diseases, and the existence of membranous cataracts, are clearly demonstrated. With a plain description of the methods of operating in all circumstances of either distemper ... / compiled from the dictates of Mr. Woolhouse, as taken from him in writing, by one of his pupils.

  • Woolhouse, John Thomas, approximately 1650-1734.
Date:
1745
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise of the cataract and glaucoma : in which the specific definitions of those two diseases, and the existence of membranous cataracts, are clearly demonstrated. With a plain description of the methods of operating in all circumstances of either distemper ... / compiled from the dictates of Mr. Woolhouse, as taken from him in writing, by one of his pupils. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    92/126 (page 84)
    / 64 A \Treatije of the* ^ * between the outward circle of the cornea g and the leffer angle $ fo that it be received c ]uft in the middle of the pupil ; ’ with more to the fame purpofe. In this he imi¬ tates fome other mefographifts of his time, who, like conjurers in a circle, made all vir¬ tue to conftft in the middle. But Mr. Woolkoufe had obferved, that the operation is neither foeafy nor fo fuccefsful, when the needle is placed juft in the middle of the pupil, as when it is placed about half a line lower: for in this latter way, though we deviate from Celfus’s rule, c juft againft the * middle of the Cataract' (e regione ?nedia fuffujionis:) yet we avoid many great diffi¬ culties that occur in the operation, when ac¬ cording to his repeated prefcriptions. By this manner of placing the needle a little lower than the middle, we deprefs the Cataraft alfo more entirely, as well as with more facility, the body of the needle thus weighing upon the body of the adventitious fubftance : whereas when the needle is placed higher, the point only touches the Cataradt as it defcends, which frequently occafions its burfting or tearing. The Cataract is alfo thus laid much lower, by reafon the needle* as it were, covers and embraces it. Farther, this method carries the oculift through the moft delicate and tieklifh part of the operation, in which the antient prac¬ titioners, who worked by Celfus9s rule of the middle*