To the Editor:
It was with great interest and pleasure that I read the article "Mr. Mackenzie Investigates Green Cataracts," by Mr. Charles Snyder in your July, 1965 issue. I would like to raise two points.While agreeing that a possible origin of the elusive green cataract (glaukosis) of Hippocrates is the use of candle light as compared with the white light of modern instruments, it should perhaps be emphasized that the word "glaukos" as used in the fifth century B.C. meant "gleaming" without any reference to color.1 Admittedly, Plutarch, in the second century A.D. used it to mean "blue-green," but it may be that Aristotle, who first used the word "glaucoma," and Hippocrates would have inclined towards the earlier, rather than the later meaning of the word (fourth and fifth century B.C.).As my second point, I would suggest that the modern word "glaucoma" with its different meaning