Temporary Cataracts in Diabetes.

Tangential displacement of the iris pattern is a common finding in chronic glaucoma and may occur in the early stages. It was found to be present in fourteen members of a series of thirty-five consecutive cases of chronic glaucoma. Although it is almost certainly a stage in the iris atrophy which occurs in the advanced condition, tabular evidence is presented which shows.that it may be found in conjunctio,n with good central vision. It is a sign subordinate to the findings of the tonometer and screen and certainly visual-acuity is no index of the progressive severitv of the disease. As inspection is usually carried out, however, before instrumental methods, the observation has a place in routine work. The serious nature-of the eye condition may be suspected immediately if tangential-displacement of the iris pattern is observed. THE very transient lens opacities that occur in intense dehydration 'of diabetic coma and last 1 or 2'days,were recently described b,y Lawrence, Oakley and Bar'ne (1942). Apart from such acute dehydration a few cases of longer lasting but temporary cataracts have been recorded. Nettleship (1885) described three patients in whom cataracts rapidly developed as diabetes grew worse and 'cleared when the treatment'either abolished or diminished the urinary sugar. In' one case symmetrical nuclear cataracts," which prevented recognition of large objects, disappeared com-s pletely' in two weeks and small print could be read' again-this by diet and opium treatment which diminished the urinary sugar from extremely high to moderate amounts. The cases are not described 'in great detail and the metabolic details are scanty, but the facts are authentic and clear. Alt (1906)' describes the eye changes in a vyoung woman with neglected and progressively severe'diabetes. One morning. while reading at 11 a.m. she was terrified by a sudden clouding of her right and later the left eye and at 5' p.m. Alt observed a large subcapsular opacity in 'the R. eye and radial streaks in the left. The strenuous diet she then submitted to reduced her sugar and in three weeks both lenses were quite. clear *