A strain of Sprague-Dawley rats in which congenital cataracts are associated with skull malformations has been studied. The lens changes are nonprogressive and are found in newborn animals. Inheritance is by a fully-expressed simple autosomal recessive gene. Histopathologic study revealed a distinctive over production of the lens capsule and proliferation of lens epithelium which is a unique finding in animals and resembles changes seen in some human syndromes associated with congenital cataract.