The composition of the human lens in health and in cataract : and its bearing upon operations for the later / by Wm. J. Collins.

  • Collins, William J. (William Job), 1859-1946.
Date:
[1889]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The composition of the human lens in health and in cataract : and its bearing upon operations for the later / by Wm. J. Collins. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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

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    THE COMPOSITION OF THE HUMAN LENS IN HEALTH AND IN CATARACT, AND ITS BEARING UPON OPERATIONS FOR THE LATTER. By Wm. J. Collins, M.S., M.D., B.Sc.Lond., F.R.CS.Eng., Surgeon to the London Temperance Hospital; Ophthalmic Surgeon to North-west London and Western Ophthalmic Hospitals. TN April, 1887, my attention was directed to the subject of the composition of the cataractous lens as compared with the healthy lens, in consequence of the question then being re- discussed as to the propriety of extraction of immature cataracts. I was disappointed to find, on referring to the classical authori- ties upon the subject, how meagre was the material from which conclusions had been arrived at, and how impossible it was to equate the analyses of various observers, made at different times, in different ways, often of lenses from different animals, and with very diverse degrees of caution in eUminating numerous sources of error; and in consequence how valueless and often contradictory were the data which presumed to guide our practice in this field of ophthalmology. I therefore determined to set to work, in such hours of leisure as I could spare from hospital and private practice, to analyse a series of healthy and cataractous lenses of different ages, all from the human subject. It is needless to say it was no easy task to obuin the material required sufficiently fresh and sufficiently intact to secure a reliable basis of comparison. Opportunities of