A Complete Physico-Medical and Chirurgical Treatise on the human eye

Historical Significance: Originally published 1788 in Edinburgh. This facsimile is produced in the The Classics of Ophthalmology Library series by Gryphon Editions. Degravers (dates unknown) was educated as a surgeon in Paris and settled in Edinburgh in 1780. He wrote 'Description de la vision' in 1776 and the first edition of this book in 1780. He was regarded as an outrageous quack by British surgeons but is known to have been an excellent surgeon who could successfully operate on cataract by extraction instead of couching. Jacques Daveil (1693-1762) had devised this technique in 1747 and Degraves being trained in France was no doubt aware of it. This book demonstrates a level of knowledge that is surprising since it was written 2 decades before Newton's 'Opticks'. Degraver gained notoriety when he offered to bring back to life a William Brodie, a convicted thief, after his execution in Edinburgh, a story that is the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's 'The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde' The notoriety of this matter, the death of his wife and debts caused Degravers to move to London after which little is known of him.