Why are eye cataracts called cataracts? Isn’t a cataract a high waterfall or any furious rush of water; a deluge? But an eye cataract is a hardening of the lens.
So how did it come to be called a cataract?
“If it’s not one thing, it’s two things.”
The lens becomes cloudy, resulting in decreasing vision and eventually blindness. The cloudiness looks like the mist caused by a waterfall.
Cause the eye docs all drove Cataracts, not Rincolns.
Silly and probably offensive to some (sorry), but my deal with Devil requires me to do things like this.
NoClueBoy: Yeah, corny joke, and probaly offensive. However: my deal with Devil requires me to do things like this. is a classic! I’d use it for my sig if I didn’t already have one. 
This thread is a duplicate of this one:
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=168365
Just FYI, there are more posts to that one, and the question has already been answered there, and then some.
Just for your reference, last June I had a replacement “inner lens” fitted in my right eye because I was an unusually “young” victim of a cataract. I’m only 40, and my left eye is 100% clear as day. Just one of those things I guess.
Being a fellow Doper, of course, I was determined to find out everything I could on the subject! If any of you are interested to learn what I went through, and what was involved, by all means, I’d love to answer your questions.
For example… the lens which was fitted was made in Texas. It’s a permanent fixed focal length lens designed specifically for the diamter of my right eyeball. It sits behind the iris, and believe it or not, it’s made from aircraft windshield acrylic. It seems that during WW2, doctors discovered that pilots who had their eyes pierced with certain windshield shrapnel suffered no “rejection” issues with the acrylics that were used. So, 60 years on, I’ve effectively got a bit of aircraft windshield inside my right eye! Hah!
Do you know what type of plastic that was, Boo BooFoo. Modern aircraft use Lexan, but I’m pretty sure they didn’t have that back during WWII.