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Surgeons attempting delicate eye surgery before the days of anaesthesia, faced a formidable task. This patient is tied to a chair, undoubtedly with his consent. When the Scottish surgeon, James Wardrop (1782-1869), attempted his first cataract extraction on a deaf-blind boy of 15, ‘his exertions became so violent' that Wardrop was forced to stop the operation. Undaunted, he tried again some days later, when ‘a wooden box, the sides of which moved on hinges, was folded round his body, and fixed by circular ropes; and in this way, notwithstanding a powerful resistance, he was placed on a table and kept quite steady'.

Line engraving, Germany.