L'abaissement de la cataracte : analyse des temporalités de la fin d'une pratique chirurgicale

This article analyzes developments in cataract surgery in France during the 18^th and 19^th centuries. It examines the various phases that led to the abandonment of the traditional technique of couching the crystalline lens in favor of extraction. This study questions the role of French surgeon Jacques Daviel (1696-1762) and argues that the shift away from the traditional method was driven not by the superiority of the new technique, but by its association with the emancipation of surgery from medicine in the eighteenth century and the challenges surrounding the recognition of ophthalmology as a medical specialty in the following century.