catarata

Various levels of official medicine were practiced by people calling themselves cirujanos, many of them specializing in the treatment of specific problems that demanded practical skills: the algebrista, or bone-setter, who set fractures and reduced dislocations; the sacador de la piedra, who removed painful bladder stones; the hernista, who reduced and managed hernias; and the batidor de la catarata, or oculist, who specialized in treating cataracts. 53 Both bone setters and oculists were appointed at various times in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the cabildo in Mexico City to treat the poor. 54

Pestilence and Headcolds: Encountering Illness in Colonial Mexico 2008