The distinction between glaucoma and cataract was perplexing for many thousands of years. A new light was thrown on the question in 1709, when the will of Bourdelot, court physician of Louis XIV, was carried out after his death. His eyeballs were removed and examined for the character of their disease. It was then that Brisseau found out that the lens was not the seat of the disease called glaucoma. However, he failed to discover the real source of the disease, placing it in the vitreous. His view was adopted by my distinguished predecessor, Joseph Jacob Plenck,1 the widely known "Professor Regius Publicus ac ordinarius in Regia Universitate Budensi." He stated : "Glaucoma est opacitas humoris vitrei. . . . morbus raris-simus, cognitu dificillimus ac semper incurabilis." ("Glaucoma is an opacity of the vitreous humor. . . . a very rare disease, most difficult to recognize and always incurable.") Joseph Beer,2 the