Cataract and its treatment : comprising an easy mode of dividing the cornea for its extraction and appropriate means for removing the different forms of that affection / by John Scott.

  • Scott, John
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cataract and its treatment : comprising an easy mode of dividing the cornea for its extraction and appropriate means for removing the different forms of that affection / by John Scott. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

    11/86
    AND ITS TREATMENT. General Description of Cataract. The term cataract is applied to any opacity of the lens or cap- sule that obstructs the aperture of the pupil, and thus prevents the admission of light to the retina. It is derived from the Greek word KarapaKT'T]';, which signifies a gate or portculUs (Herodo- tus, book 5. ch. 6.), from Karappdacrco or KarappijyvvfMC, cum im- petu decidere facio; so also Livy, book 27. ch. 28, cataracta dejecta clausa erat. It is manifest that there is no analogy ber tween an opake lens and a waterfall, while that between a cataract shutting up the aperture of the pupil and a gate or portcullis is sufficiently obvious. Cataracts have been divided into those that are genuine, which the foregoing definition comprises, and those that are spi^'ious, which consist of a false membrane deposited in the pupil, in conse- quence of inflammation of the ii-is, and are hence termed cataractse grumosse, piu*ulentae, lymphaticse, &c. These however may more properly be referred to the head of Closed Pupil. Cataracts may be divided into lenticular, capsular, and capsulo-lenticular; they may be imperfect, and confined to a portion of the lens or cap- sule, or complete, and involve the whole of either of them. By a lenticular cataract is understood an opacity confined to the lens itself, and not involving its capsule. Of this form there are three varieties, distinguished by their consistence and their