1538 ANONYMOUS
Ein newes hochnutzlichs Büchlin von erkantnus der Kranckheyten der Augen....
The first separate publication on diseases of the eye after Grassi (1474). This very rare anonymous work was intended, according to its title, to provide highly useful knowledge of the anatomy of the eye, and eye dise…
GMN 6932 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9097
1561 FRANCO, Pierre (1500 – 1561)
Traité des hernies... et autres excellentes parties de chirurgie assavior de la pierre, des cataractes des yeux, & autres maladies...
Greatly expanded second edition, including Franco's operations for cataract and urinary calculi. Digital facsimile from BnF Gallica at this link.
GMN 3574 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/4161
1623 DAZA DE VALDÉS, Benito (1591 – 1634)
Uso del los antojos para todo genero de vistas, en que se enseña a conocer los grados que a cada uno le faltan de su vista, y los que tienen qualesquier antojos.
The earliest scientific work dealing with spectacles. It includes sight testing tables and points out the value of convex lenses after cataract operations. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link. Eng…
GMN 5821 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7039
1656 ROLFINCK, Guerner (Werner) (1599 – 1673)
Dissertationes anatomicae methodo synthetica exaratae…
Rolfinck was the first to demonstrate the location of cataract in the lens.
GMN 5821.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7042
1707 MAÎTRE-JAN, Antoine (1650 – 1730)
Traité des maladies de l’oeil
Called “the Father of French ophthalmology”, Maître-Jan energetically supported Brisseau’s doctrine, ensuring its acceptance. As far back as 1692, Maître-Jan had proved that the opaque lens is cataract, but before Bri…
GMN 5824 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7056
1709 BRISSEAU, Michel (1676 – 1743)
Traité de la cataracte et du glaucoma.
Brisseau was the first to demonstrate the true nature and location of cataract. His book was reprinted in facsimile, 1921.
GMN 5825 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7061
1722 SAINT-YVES, Charles de (1667 – 1733)
Nouveau traité des maladies des yeux.
Records the removal of a cataract “en masse” from a living subject. English edition, 1741. Digital facsimile of the 1722 edition from Biu Santé at this link.
GMN 5827 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7069
1729 DUDDELL, Benedict (1695 – )
A treatise of the diseases of the horny coat of the eye, and the various kinds of cataracts.
“Descemet’s membrane” was first described by Duddell. Descemet described it in 1758; see No. 1484.1.
GMN 1482 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2489
1748 DAVIEL, Jacques (1693 – 1762)
Lettre de M. Daviel, conseiller, chirurgien ordinaire du roi en survivance & par quartier, à M. de Joyeuse, docteur en médecine de l’Université de Montpellier ....
The first account of cataract extraction. Daviel also published this in the Mercure de France in September 1748, pp. 198-218. The separate edition, a 24-page pamphlet, was printed from a different setting of type.
GMN 13777 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/16064
1753 DAVIEL, Jacques (1693 – 1762)
Sur une nouvelle méthode de guérir la cataracte par l’extraction du cristalin.
Daviel originated the modern method of treating cataract by extraction of the lens. By the time he made this official scientific report to the Academy of Surgery, Daviel had already tested his method on 206 cases, wit…
GMN 5829 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7078
1775 POTT, Percivall (1714 – 1788)
Chirurgical observations relative to the cataract, the polypus of the nose, the cancer of the scrotum, etc.
Includes the first description of occupational cancer. By describing chimney sweeps” cancer of the scrotum, Pott was the first to trace the origin of a type of cancer to a specific external cause. The above work also …
GMN 2122 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/2635
1844 –1850 SUŚRUTA, (Sushruta); HESSLER, Franz (1799 – 1890)
Suśrutas. Áyruvédas. Id est medicinae systema a venerabili d'hanvantare demonstratum a Suśruta discipulo compositum. Nunc primum ex Sanksríta in Latinum sermonem vertit, introductionem, annotationes et rerum indicem adjecit Dr. Franciscus Hessler. 3 vols.
First translation of the Suśruta Samhitā into Latin, and the first publication of this text in the West. Suśruta is said to have lived in the 6th or 5th centuries, BCE. The principal medical contribution of the ancien…
GMN 11 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/35
1860 MITCHELL, Silas Weir (1829 – 1914)
On the production of cataract in frogs by the administration of sugar.
GMN 5888 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7350
1863 JACOBSON, Julius (1828 – 1889)
Ein neues und gefahrloses Operations-Verhfahren zur Heilung des grauen Staares.
Jacobson used a peripheral incision in his operation for cataract.
GMN 5891 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7361
1865 –1872 WILLIAMS, Henry Willard (1821 – 1895)
Suture of the flap, after extraction of cataract.
A method of suturing the flap after cataract extraction was introduced by Williams.
GMN 5895 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7379
1865 GRAEFE, Friedrich Wilhelm Ernst Albrecht von (1828 – 1870)
Ueber mordificirte Linearextraction.
Graefe’s improvement of the operation for cataract by the modified linear extraction reduced the incidence of eye loss from 10 to 2.3 per cent.
GMN 5897 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7387
1866 PAGENSTECHER, Alexander (1828 – 1879)
Ueber die Extraktion des grauen Staares bei uneröffneter Kapsel durch den Scleralschnitt. IN Klinische Beobachtungen aus der Augenheilanstalt zu Wiesbaden, hrsg. von E.H. Pagenstecher u. T. Saemisch, Heft 3.
Extraction of the lens in the closed capsule through a scleral incision, for the treatment of cataract.
GMN 5896 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7474
1868 ROTHMUND, August von (1830 – 1906)
Ueber Cataracten in Verbindung mit einer eigenthümlichen Haut-de-generation.
Poikiloderma congenitale (Rothmund).
GMN 4056.1 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/5416
1871 MONTMÉJA, Pierre Michel Arthur de (1841 – 1910); MEYER, Édouard (1838 – 1902)
Traité des opérations qui se pratiquent sur l'oeil.
Published in fascicules beginning in 1870. Includes 22 original mounted albumen photographs by Montméja illustrating chapters on cataract, iridectomy, strabismus, eyelids, and lacrymal passages. There are also 190 woo…
GMN 10123 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/12312
1876 MAGNUS, Hugo Friedrich (1842 – 1907)
Geschichte des grauen Staares.
An early history of cataract.
GMN 5993 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7112
1892 BOWMAN, Sir William (1816 – 1892); BURDON-SANDERSON, Sir John Scott (1828 – 1905); HULKE, John Whitaker (1830 – 1895)
The collected papers of Sir W. Bowman. Edited by J. Burdon-Sanderson and J. W. Hulke. 2 vols.
Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.
GMN 12786 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15032
1900 SMITH, Henry (1862 – 1948)
Extractions of cataract in the capsule.
Smith, an officer in the Indian Medical Service, had remarkable success with his method of extraction of cataract within the capsule. He modified his operation in 1926 (Arch. Ophthal. N.Y., 55, 213-24). See also Smith…
GMN 5946 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6931
1911 HULEN, Vard Houghton (1865 – 1939)
Vacuum fixation of the lens and flap suture in the extraction of a cataract in its capsule.
Hulen devised a vacuum method of cataract extraction.
GMN 5959 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6976
1915 KNAPP, Arnold Hermann (1869 – 1956)
Report of one hundred successive extractions of cataract in the capsule after subluxation with the capsule forceps.
Knapp’s method of extraction of cataract with forceps. See also his later paper in the same journal, 1921, 50, 426-30.
GMN 5964 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6992
1917 BARRAQUER, Ignacio (1884 – 1965); ANDUYNED
Un procédé d’extrême douceur pour l’extraction “in toto” de la cataracte.
Attempts to extract cataract by suction and aspiration date from ancient times. Barraquer employed a special machine of his own invention. His co-author Anduyned, seems to be identified by last name only.
GMN 5965 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6994
1917 ELLIOT, Robert Henry (1864 – 1936)
The Indian operation of couching for cataract. Incorporating The Hunterian Lectures....
Prefaced by an extensive historical introduction; the remainder of the text being of historical significance in the 21st century. Digital facsimile from the Hathi Trust at this link.
GMN 12959 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/15206
1932 LÓPEZ LACARRERE, Julio (1895 – )
Nuestro método original de extracciόn total de la catarata senil: la electrodiafaquia. Primeros ensayos.
Intracapsular extraction of cataract by diathermy with the electro-diaphake. Preliminary report in Klin. Mbl. Augenheilk., 1932, 88, 778-83.
GMN 5983 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/7060
1937 MEYERHOF, Max (1874 – 1945); IBN ALĪ AL MAUSILĪ, 'Ammār (996 – 1020)
The cataract operations of 'Ammar Ibn Alī Al-Mausilī by Max Meyerhof.
Mausilī invented a hollow metallic syringe, which he applied through the sclerotic, and successfully extracted cataracts through suction.
GMN 9441 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/11624
1941 GREGG, Sir Norman McAlister (1892 – 1966)
Congenital cataract following German measles in the mother.
Gregg drew attention to congenital defects in infants following rubella in the mother during the early part of pregnancy.
GMN 5507 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/6499
1959 FRANÇOIS, Jules (1907 – 1984)
Les cataractes congénitales.
GMN 7402 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9574
1975 KELMAN, Charles D. (1930 – 2004)
Phacoemulsification and aspiration: the Kelman technique of cataract removal.
Kelman introduced phacoemulsification in 1967.
GMN 7393 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9565
1998 KELMAN, Charles D. (1930 – 2004); KWITKO, M. L.
The history of modern cataract surgery.
GMN 7394 · https://historyofmedicine.com/id/9566
