Ignacio Barraquer (1884-1965) came from the famous ophthalmology family of the Barraquer in Sapin, he was born in Barcelona,
where he studied Medicine obtaining his doctorate in 1908. He received an extremely broad complementary training: he 
attended special couses on mechanics, moulding and plastic art at the  School of Arts and Trades, physics and chemistry at
the Instituo General, comparative anatomy, botany, bacteriology and applied chemistry at the Universidad de Madrid. At the 
universities of Paris and Montpellier he studied histology, ophthalmology, embryology and parasitology.

When his father retired he was appointed Acting Professor of Ophthalmology at the School of Medicine from 1919 until 1923. 
In 1928, with his own valuable contributions organized an ophthalmological service at the Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.

With his intense and extensive training, as well as a natural acute sense of observation, he conceived the idea of extracting 
cataracts by means of a delicate and subtle application of a suction cup without damaging the tissues of the eye upon observing 
a leech capture a little stone in an aquarium.