title: The first cataract surgeons in Anglo-America.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Electronic address: chrislefflermd@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Christopher T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Leffler
authors.affiliation: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Naples, FL.
authors.forename: Stephen G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Schwartz
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Poznan City Hospital, Poznan, Poland; Department of Ophthalmology, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, Poland.
authors.forename: Andrzej
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Grzybowski
authors.affiliation: Department of Ophthalmology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA.
authors.forename: Puneet S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Braich
mesh_terms: D002386:Cataract / Q000266:history*; D002387:Cataract Extraction / Q000266:history*; D004739:England; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049671:History, 18th Century; D006801:Humans; D009885:Ophthalmology / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States
keywords: cataract extraction; cataract surgery; couching