TY - JOUR
T1 - The first cataract surgeons in Anglo-America
AU - Leffler, Christopher T.
AU - Schwartz, Stephen G.
AU - Grzybowski, Andrzej
AU - Braich, Puneet S.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank David J. Butterfield, PhD, of Queens' College in the University of Cambridge, for translating a portion of the Jericho treatise. Partially supported by National Institutes of Health Center Core Grant P30EY014801 and Research to Prevent Blindness Unrestricted Grant to the University of Miami.
PY - 2015/1/1
Y1 - 2015/1/1
N2 - We tried to identify the earliest cataract surgeons in the English-speaking areas of America. In 1751, couching was performed on the Caribbean island of Montserrat by John Morphy. William Stork of England, who couched cataracts, practiced in Jamaica in 1760 and then in cities from Annapolis to Boston between 1761 and 1764. Frederick William Jericho of Germany, upon completion of his training at Utrecht, published his 1767 treatise on his preferred surgical technique of extracapsular cataract extraction. Jericho had practiced in the Leeward Islands by 1776 and then in cities from Charleston to Boston between 1783 and 1785. The French surgeon Lewis Leprilete was the first to advertise cataract extraction in the United States in 1782 and probably passed on the skill to his protégé, Nathaniel Miller of Massachusetts. Leprilete was also the first to publicize Benjamin Franklin's invention of bifocals. These pioneers exposed American doctors and the public to cataract surgery. Shortly after their arrival, evidence emerges of other surgeons performing these procedures in America.
AB - We tried to identify the earliest cataract surgeons in the English-speaking areas of America. In 1751, couching was performed on the Caribbean island of Montserrat by John Morphy. William Stork of England, who couched cataracts, practiced in Jamaica in 1760 and then in cities from Annapolis to Boston between 1761 and 1764. Frederick William Jericho of Germany, upon completion of his training at Utrecht, published his 1767 treatise on his preferred surgical technique of extracapsular cataract extraction. Jericho had practiced in the Leeward Islands by 1776 and then in cities from Charleston to Boston between 1783 and 1785. The French surgeon Lewis Leprilete was the first to advertise cataract extraction in the United States in 1782 and probably passed on the skill to his protégé, Nathaniel Miller of Massachusetts. Leprilete was also the first to publicize Benjamin Franklin's invention of bifocals. These pioneers exposed American doctors and the public to cataract surgery. Shortly after their arrival, evidence emerges of other surgeons performing these procedures in America.
KW - Cataract extraction
KW - Cataract surgery
KW - Couching
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84918816163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84918816163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.survophthal.2014.08.002
DO - 10.1016/j.survophthal.2014.08.002
M3 - Review article
C2 - 25444521
AN - SCOPUS:84918816163
VL - 60
SP - 86
EP - 92
JO - Survey of Ophthalmology
JF - Survey of Ophthalmology
SN - 0039-6257
IS - 1
ER -