On Sept. 12, 1952, there appeared in Science an article by R. F. Shropshire, Jacob R. Ginsberg, and Mendel Jacobi1 reporting beneficial effects from the nonsurgical treatment of cataract with injections of fish lens protein. Because of the widespread public interest that it aroused and because of the inadequacy of the evidence presented, the Council of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology petitioned the National Research Council to investigate the authors' claims. An investigation was made by the National Research Council Committee on Ophthalmology, whose findings and recommendations form the basis for this report.
The hypothesis that lens antigens might be useful in the treatment of cataract is not new. In 1908 Römer2 reported success in treating cortical cataract with tablets of mammalian lens protein. In 1923 Davis,3 in this country, attempted active immunization with bovine lens material. The latter's favorable reports led to a number