THE first extraction of cataract by Daviel—its two-hundredth anniversary was last year—was followed by several important improvements in surgical technic: von Graefe's combined extraction, the intracapsular method, akinesia, fixation of the superior rectus muscle and suturing of the wound. All these procedures originated several decades ago. By their gradual perfection, the incidence of complete failures has been reduced to less than 1 per cent, as compared with 25 per cent two hundred years ago, 6 to 34 per cent in the statistics of eighty to one hundred and twenty years ago and 3 to 4 per cent in the last year of von Graefe's life. The latest measure, although not a technical one, in the direction of eliminating postoperative infection is the prophylactic use of sulfonamide drugs (Guyton and Woods1) and of penicillin (Dunnington and Locatcher-Khorazo2). As things now stand, all these improvements together relegated the dreaded postoperative