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The first edition which appeared in 1910 served, as the author correctly states, to draw attention to the intracapsular method of extraction of cataract. The interest in this operation led to various modifications and changes in the technic, such as preliminary dislocation with capsule forceps and the Barraquer suction apparatus. The author has been induced, therefore, to review the whole subject in this much enlarged new edition.
Chapter 1 takes up the clinical examination of the eye, the classification and diagnosis of cataract and the treatment to which each variety is suited. Colonel Smith suggests, as an original and practical classification of the life cycle of the cataractous lens, the incipient stage of senile cataract, and then a final stage occurring in two forms, one hypermature "ab initio" and the other, after the stage of immaturity, becomes a mature morgagnian or a mature hard cataract, which proceeds to