Source for cataract surgery ?

[richsc]

Though I see several mentions of cataract surgery, I don't see the source for it. Where are such surgeries referenced?

Also, just to speculate, does this presuppose that research dissections were happening by curious people? Else why suppose that such surgery was even possible?

[Martin Moser]

AFAIK Aulus Cornelius Celsus' De Medicina (1st cent AD) is the first known source to describe it in detail. See e.g. http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Ro.../home.html -> Book VII, 7, 14.

We know that research dissections did take place before that time, e.g. in Ptolemaic Alexandria in the 3rd cent BC. Celsus also mentions that.

A good English book to get started is "Doctors and Diseases in the Roman Empire" by Ralph Jackson.

[richsc]

Thanks!