"Saint-Yves became the first to remove a cataractous lens from a living subject ... This treatise, Saint-Yves only published book, includes accounts of a number of innovations, including his cataract operation, the extensive use of the silver nitrate in treating eye diseases, the earliest use of silver nitrate for ophthalmia neonatorum, and the first exact description of gonorreal ophthalmia." (Norman, p. 681)