On the operation for the removal of cataract : as performed with a fine sewing needle through the cornea / by Arthur Jacob.

  • Arthur Jacob
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the operation for the removal of cataract : as performed with a fine sewing needle through the cornea / by Arthur Jacob. 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.

    12/36 page 12
    in the least inclined to repent of my choice. I am on the contrary every day more and more satisfied that it affords peculiar and unquestionable advantages. It rarely, if ever, leaves even the slightest mark in the cornea. I could produce examples where it has been three times introduced, and where not the slightest speck can be detected ; and I have introduced it through the very centre of the cornea without any bad consequence. When fairly introduced into the eye, it is capable of accomplishing any object to be attained by a needle. The capsule can be opened to any extent: a soft or friable lens can be actually broken up into a pulp, by pushing the curved extremity of the needle into its centre, and revolving the handle between the fingers; large fragments can be taken up on the point of the needle from the anterior chamber, and forced back out of the way of the iris, or if sufficiently soft, may be divided by pressing them against the back of the cornea with the convexity of the needle ; a method which I have repeatedly adopted with advantage. When the lens has been displaced from the capsule, in consequence of the needle sticking in it in attempting to open its texture, I have, without removing the needle, placed the lens in the anterior chamber, and then extracted it; and in other cases have forced it back into the vitreous humour, out of the reach of the iris. From the fineness of its point, and the ease with which it can be turned and twisted in every direction, it enables the surgeon to deal most effectually with an opaque capsule ; he may pick it with the point from any attachment it may have formed to the iris, or if it hangs flaccid he may entangle and detach it by pulling or twisting. In certain cases the pupil is found nearly closed, and adhering to a small cataract of nearly cartilaginous hardness ; in these I have introduced the needle, and with the point picked up the adhesions between the margin of
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3