Jacques Daviel

Jacques Daviel (11 August 1696 -30 September 1762 ) was a French ophthalmologist credited with originating the first significant advance in cataract surgery since couching was invented in ancient India. Daviel performed the first extracapsular cataract extraction on April 8, 1747.

Daviel earned his medical degree from the Medical School of Rouen, practiced in Marseille where he was affiliated with the medical school there, then restricted his practice to ophthalmology in 1728. He was on the staff of Hospital d'Invalides and became oculist to Louis XV.

Daviel died of apoplexy in 1762 while on a trip to Geneva, Switzerland.