**yi*^A*dk')
ADDRESS
lOenirntinit nf tjit %m Sktlnittg
MASSACHUSETTS EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY,


          JULY 3, 1850.
  EDWARD REYNOLDS, M.D.


             /&&:'ds

         --P'*%



       BOSTON:

CHARLES C. P. MOODY, PRINTER,
     Dickinson Office, 62 Washington Street.
          1850.
 
 
MASSACHUSETTS CHARITABLE EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.
CHARLES STREET. ERLCTEn. 1850. 
          ADDRESS
                  frfff-
                  AT THE

    DEDICATION OF THE  NEW  BUILDING,

                  OP THE


Jtta00<ul)tt0rtt0 €ge emir (Ear Jnfkmarg,

               JULY  3,  1850.
            /
           by;
            i
           \i
EDWARD  REYNOLDS, M.D.
Zpzf
          BOSTON:
CHARLES  C. P. MOODY,  PRINTER,
     Old Dickinson Office, 52 Washington Street.
              1850. 
 
                                             Boston, July 3, 1850.
Edward  Reynolds, M.D.
    Dear Sir, — In compliance with the request of the Managers of the
Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear Infirmary, you have given an Address
to the  public, on the occasion of the Dedication of the new building to its
charitable  use.
  Containing, as it does, a very interesting account of the rise and progress
of the Infirmary, hitherto very little known in the community, notwithstand-
ing the great benefits that have been conferred by it upon a large class of the
poor; and believing  that the publication  of your eloquent and  appropriate
Address will tend essentially to extend a knowledge of the  Institution, and
promote its benevolent purposes, the subscribers were appointed a committee,
to request  a copy of  it for publication.
  With great pleasure we communicate to you the request, not doubting that
you will accede to their wishes.
                 Very Respectfully,
                                ROBERT G. SHAW, )
                                MOSES GRANT,      f. Committee.
                                JAMES LAWRENCE,)
                                              Boston, July 8, 1850.
  Gentlemen, —
      I send you a copy of the Address delivered at the Dedication of the
Massachusetts Charitable Eye and  Ear Infirmary, which you have  done me
the honor to request for publication.   Hoping that it may, as  you have sug-
gested, subserve the interests of the Institution,
                       I am, Very  truly,
                                Your Friend and Servant,
                                          EDWARD REYNOLDS. 
 
             ADDRESS.


To the Patrons  of  the Infirmary :

      We are  assembled  in  this beautiful structure
erected  by the wisdom and persevering energy of the
Managers of  the Mass. Charitable Eye Infirmary.   We
have invited its friends to enter with us, and to dedicate
it by some appropriate services to its benevolent  use.
It is a grateful task  to me, in obedience to their request,
to welcome you within its walls; and to congratulate
you on the completion of another noble Charity, which
through their agency, has arisen to honor and adorn our
City; to  walk with you about its commodious wards;
that you may receive the silent but  expressive blessing
of the poor  and blind, and learn in  the true though
mute eloquence  of these humble individuals, the luxury
of doing good.
  It is  peculiarly grateful  to them and to me, to  meet
on this auspicious occasion, all who have contributed by
their wisdom or  their generosity to the advancement of
our Institution; and to the erection  of  the  building 
                         6

which  we are this  day assembled to consecrate ; and
which  is destined to continue a  noble monument of
their benevolence ; and  to transmit to unborn genera-
tions its healing  benefits.  It is the  child of an early
love, about  which clusters the memory of many of the
pleasing associations, and many  of the touching inci-
dents that serve to shed  an interest over the retrospect
of professional life.   To the Surgeons belongs its pater-
nity ; — to the kindness of its friends,  the fostering care
that watched its feeble  infancy, guided and protected
its promising youth, until in the vigor of a useful man-
hood,  it now stands before  you  an object of honest
pride,  affording in a retrospect of the  past, the surest
pledge of its future usefulness.
   There are periods in the history of every individual,
and every institution, in which it is wise to pause for a
moment, and examine the landmarks that designate its
points of progress ;  that we may  gather up a lesson of
wisdom from the past, and be stimulated to new exer-
tions for the future.  The dedication of this building to
the cause of benevolence seems to be one of the land-
marks, to which the former friends of the Infirmary
have   long looked forward with anxious hope; and to
which  its future friends will look back with interest.   I
propose to pay the  debt now considered  due to  the
Patrons of the Institution, by devoting a portion of this
interesting hour to a simple detail of such of the promi-
nent facts of its history, as will best show  the motives 
7
that led to its  formation ; the principles upon which it
has been governed;  and the  results it has produced ;
and thus to  make known the faithfulness with which
your  designs have been fulfilled ;  and to enable you
best to appreciate the great amount of good already
secured by your  benevolence ;  and the unspeakable
benefit, which this simple charity is capable in its pres-
ent matured condition, of conferring upon the cause of
science and humanity.
   Public Eye Infirmaries, are the Institutions of modern
times.  There are persons still living, whose eyes beheld
the corner stone of the first that was erected.  It was
laid in the almost universal ignorance of Ophthalmic
Seience.   One of the most remarkable  facts developed
in the  history of Medicine, is  the  utter neglect of the
study of Diseases of the Eyes, during the long period of
two thousand years — from the days of Celsus who flour-
ished  in  the reign of Augustus Caesar, almost  to our
time.   While every other branch of medicine, enlarged
its boundaries  by the accurate observation of each suc-
ceeding age, this alone remained stationary.  The medi-
cal profession, always true  to itself, has kept an equal
progress with the other sciences ; and successively given
in its own character a faithful representation of the wis-
dom with which it was associated.  As we travel down
the successive periods of the world's existence, we confi-
dently look to the medical fathers for a progressively
increasing light ; and except in  this single branch of 
8
  science we never look in vain.  But here no response is
  given.  The  Eye, the noblest and most beautiful organ
  of the body, through which the mind receives its chief
  stores of  knowledge, and many of its purest streams of
 joy — and by the aid  of which are  carried  on all the
  avocations that  contribute to the happiness  and im-
  provement of society—seems to have been the only part,
  abandoned to an  almost total neglect.  This profound
  ignorance hardly disturbed  through a long series of
  ages, and extending back  to  a period anterior to the
  Christian  era, is to us who are so able  to  appreciate
  the suffering and poverty consequent  upon  the un-
 cured diseases of the eye, almost inconceivable.
   But such is the fact.  The  union of Opthalmology to
 Medicine, and its elevation to the rank of a Science, is the
 work of our day.  The Romans received it rude and im-
 perfect from the Greeks; the Greeks from the Egyptians;
 and Egyptian Opthalmology,  to  which probably very
 little had been added  by either  Greek or Roman, was
 the  poor legacy to all subsequent ages, until the latter
 part of the 18th century; when the Germans made the
 first effort, by concentrating upon it the light of Physi-
 ology and Pathology, to rescue it from its degraded con-
 dition  ; and to elevate it to a rank which  rendered it a
 blessing to mankind.  It is painful to look back in im-
agination, and contemplate the amount  of misery en-
 tailed  on every generation by the annoying affections
 of this little organ now so easily relieved ; and to behold 
9
the multitude of blind ones, now so readily restored to
sight, who  must then have wandered about in helpless
beggary and want.  The medical historian is able to
comprehend the feelings of the Jew, when he exclaimed
in wonder, " Since the world began, was it not heard
that any man opened the eyes of one born blind."  He
finds  no difficulty in believing that  no mere human
power performed that act of kindness ; or in admitting
the truthfulness of its narrator.  In the exclamation of
that humble man, he sees the low  condition of a science,
which in our day, has become the rare blessing of the
race; and is able to estimate the debt of gratitude laid
upon the  friends of humanity,  by  your benevolent
efforts in rearing this edifice.
   The eighteenth century was passing away before the
light of science began to break in upon this universal
darkness.   Here and there  an individual occasionally
appeared, who  added some slight improvement to the
art.   But the ignorance  and  indifference of Physicians
to the subject, had permitted the diseases of the eyes to
fall almost exclusively into the hands of a class of men
calling  themselves Oculists;  men, wholly ignorant of
Anatomy, Physiology and Pathology ; who were valued
only for a certain  amount of manual dexterity in  the
few cases requiring mechanical remedies; and for the
local treatment, which formed the narrow and unimpor-
tant limits of their knowledge ; men, unfitted by nature
or education for the  treatment of any disease j  who
             2 
10
left the science  as they found it;  in a state of almost
total darkness;  and rendered the  term Oculist a bye
word  and a reproach among Physicians to the present
day.
  It was not until  men eminent for  knowledge, and
familiar with every department of medical science, took
the subject in hand ; such men as Richter and Barth,
and Beer in Germany; and  Saunders, Farre and Law-
rence in England; men of general and comprehensive
views ; who laid the whole field of medicine under con-
tribution, for the principles which were to guide them in
learning the nature and treatment of eye diseases, that
the Profession were ready to receive this neglected and
much abused branch under its protection ; and that the
oculists who had never contributed anything to its ele-
vation, were compelled to abandon  it.   The gentlemen
who have been  appointed, ever  since, to the manage-
ment of Institutions for Diseases of the Eyes, have been
selected for their attainments  in all branches of medical
science.  It is the law of  all these establishments in
Europe, that none other are admissible to office.  And
since the Physician and Surgeon are alone fitted for the
comprehensive  views required for the treatment  of
Opthalmic  disease, we are glad that the term oculist, is
fast passing away with  the generations that employed
the men who bore it.
  With these  observations  upon the general nature of
this subject, we are  better prepared to comprehend the 
11
 importance of the Eye Infirmary.  I begin by saying
 that Austria has the honor of making the first effort to
 rescue Opthalmic  Surgery from its degraded condition;
 and of conferring the unspeakable blessing of an  im-
 proved state  of the science  upon the world; when in
 1773, under the supervision of one of her most eminent
 physicians, she opened the first school of instruction to
 pupils ; and devoted two wards of the Vienna hospital
 to the reception of patients afflicted with diseases of the
 eyes.   At this infant establishment,  the  first light of
 science broke in upon the profession.  There, the medi-
 cal student first discovered  the value of the eye as a
 beautiful  mirror, where from its transparency, he could
 best learn, because the only one in which he could clearly
 see, the progress  of morbid action.  In the  beautiful
 thought of Latham,  " It is the organ where he can see
 all diseases in miniature; and from  its peculiar struc-
 ture,  see  them as through a glass; and learn many of
 the little  wonderful details in the nature of morbid pro-
 cesses, which  but  for  the  observation of them in   the
 eye, he could  never  have  learnt at all."   It was at  that
 little  Eye Infirmary that hope first began to dawn upon
 the sorrows of blindness.  It  was there that a fountain
 was  first  opened, which flowing on  in new and ever
 widening  streams, has carried light  and  happiness to
 thousands in its course.
  A long time, however,  was destined to elapse before
the example of Austria was followed in other countries. 
12
The universal  war in which the ambition of Napoleon
involved the European  nations, greatly retarded the
progress of Opthalmic  Surgery, and kept it within the
narrow  limits where  it  began.  Thirty years slowly
rolled away, before it reached England ; and it was ten
years later before America received the blessing.
  It was not until the year 1804, that the first impulse
to the scientific study of the diseases of the eyes was
given in England, by the establishment of  the London
Eye  Infirmary, by Dr. Saunders, who brought the ripe
fruits of an admirably  constituted, and a highly culti-
vated mind to the study  of this  hitherto neglected
branch.  Although  he  died  too early  to fulfil all the
bright  promises  excited by the beautiful discoveries
soon  made  at the Institution, he did much towards
redeeming the pledge with which he entered upon its
duties.  Before he  went to his reward, this branch of
Pathology was adopted as the favorite child of the Pro-
fession ; and he had opened a closed path, since trodden
by many faithful followers ; who,  while reaping in it
invaluable professional knowledge for themselves, have
made the hearts  of a great multitude of fellow beings
leap for joy, through the restoration of a faculty, with-
out which, life is  oftentimes hardly  a blessing.
   In 1810, the London  Eye Infirmanr was first thrown
open to medical  pupils; and soon became an object of
great interest to a large number who were preparing
themselves  in that  city, for the medical  and surgical 
13
professions — to a few, with  the  intention of pursuing
the study of Opthalmic disease  as a speciality ; but to
far the greater number, as  the  neutral ground, where
Surgeons and Physicians might both meet, to study the
principles of Pathology, as illustrated by the eye ;  and
to  become  acquainted with what is now considered an
essential part of general medical  education.   In 1816, it
was my privilege for a few  months, to enjoy the same
opportunity under  the  teachings of the distinguished
Farre, Lawrence and Travers, all  of whom are still living,
the bright  ornaments of the Profession.  They were
teachings of the highest order, that could hardly fail to
excite a strong interest in the pursuit ; as well from its
intrinsic utility in  acquiring a knowledge of disease, as
its power of proving useful to  mankind.
   As  the London Eye Infirmary owes its origin to the
Institution  at  Vienna, so the Massachusetts Infirmary,
where we are this day assembled, must claim its parent-
age from that.  The valuable work of Saunders,  pub-
lished in 1816, and the  occasional reports of the Infirm-
ary of which it was the first fruits, began  to  excite a
spirit of inquiry among several eminent individuals in
our country.   But no general  movement was made in
its favor  until 1821; when the first  Eye Infirmary in
America was established by Dr.  John Kearney Rodgers,
and Dr. Edward Delafield, two of the most distinguished
physicians and surgeons in New York, who may be called
the fathers of American Opthalmology.  Filled with the 
14
 spirit first received at the London Institution, and finding
 on their return from  Europe a  great number of poor
 people afflicted with diseases of the eyes, they were desir-
 ous of extending a similar blessing  to their native city.
 Accordingly, at the request of several of the senior mem-
 bers of the profession, they founded the New York Eye
 Infirmary, where they have ever  since labored with
 praiseworthy diligence; devoting  to its interests a great
 amount of time, that  was with difficulty spared from
 other professional pursuits; uncheered by any adequate
 patronage  of the public, though  36,000  fellow beings
 have received the blessing of sight and hearing at their
 hands; and  reaping no  other reward than  the hap-
 piness  of doing good.
   Two years after, in  the latter  part of 1824, the  ex-
 ample  was followed  in  Boston, and the first effort made,
 whose  noble result  we are  this day assembled to cele-
 brate.  Perhaps, on this occasion,  I may be pardoned in
 saying, that the Massachusetts Charitable Eye Infirmary
 partly originated in the fact that one of its  founders had
the happiness of restoring a beloved father* to sight by
 the operation for cataract.   The tender relation in this
 case of  surgeon and  patient,  becoming  extensively
known among the small population then composing our
community, brought to his observation a large number
of Opthalmic patients ; and soon revealed the fact, that
the poor and laboring classes  are peculiarly liable to
* Edward Reynolds, Esq. 
15
these diseases — a fact  now familiar to every  one ac-
quainted with the results of these Institutions.  Whoever
would study the diseases of the eyes, must pass by the
houses  of  the  affluent, and enter those  of the  poor.
The great majority of all these cases belong to the hum-
bler ranks of society; and have their prolific parentage in
the  various privations and sorrows unavoidably conse-
quent upon poverty.   The eye though small  in bulk,
is complicated in structure.  It presents a specimen of
every texture of which  the body is composed ; and con-
sequently of every disease.  No  organ is  found to pos-
sess more intimate sympathies with all  others than this;
or is more prone to feel the result of all causes that tend
to produce a derangement of the general system. In the
unhealthy locations, and the wretched tenements of the
poor ; in the imperfect ventilation to which they  are con-
stantly exposed ; in the inappropriate and often insuffi-
cient aliment; the scanty clothing, the neglect, the want
of cleanliness, and  the  thousand privations inseparable
from their lot, you  have these causes all combined.  In
these darkened wards through which you are invited to
walk this morning,  you will see it verified.  The sickly
hue, and the toil worn features of these poor people
are but the results of constitutional derangements thus
induced ; and as clearly  reveal the inseparable  union
between the health of  the body and the  health of the
eye, as between poverty and disease.  These affections
are not the ordinary trial of the woman whom Heaven's 
16
bounty has blessed with competence or wealth ; but of
the widowed mother, whose needy offspring renders every
hour an  hour of toil;  and the dependent seamstress,
whose patient fingers know no repose till the midnight
hour.   It is the toil worn laborer, whose fatiguing occu-
pations must be continued in the summer's heat, and the
winter's cold,— it is the poor foreigner who builds your
railroads, and repairs your docks, that seek the aid of
this friendly  charity.  A large proportion of all the acci-
dents to which the eye  is liable, is to be found, not in
the office of the professional man, or the counting house
of the  merchant, but in the  workshop of the poor but
industrious mechanic.
  These are the individuals for whom you have erected
this charitable Institution.  It was of such that He who
came  down to give  sight to the  blind once said, " the
poor ye  shall always have with you."  Their number
now increased an hundred fold by the tide of immigra-
tion crowding our shores with the poor of Europe, was
so great twenty-six years ago, as to render it impossible
to treat  them  without  a sacrifice of time inconsistent
with the  pursuit of other and more favorite branches of
the Profession.  Accordingly, in the  month of Novem-
ber 1824, the speaker in conjunction with Dr. John
Jeffries, hired a room in Scollay's Buildings; fitted it
with such conveniences as their limited means enabled
them to  procure; and invited the poor,  afflicted with
diseases of the eye,  to come there for gratuitous  aid. 
17
After having continued their  daily attendance for the
period of sixteen months, it was found that during this
time, although the population of the city did not exceed
50,000, no less than 886 persons had applied at  the
rooms;  presenting  every variety of disease, from the
simplest derangements that constituted only an annoy-
ance, seriously interfering with their avocations, to the
graver  maladies destined to terminate in blindness ; or
sometimes in the loss of life.
   The  history of that year's labor, with a simple detail
of the  condition, ages, character and circumstances of
the  patients, and the results of treatment, forms a per-
fect example of the annual result of every similar estab-
lishment.  There, the unwilling  occupant  of the poor
house recovered from disease, which for years had con-
signed him and his family to its comfortless abode; and
revealed its  salutary influence  upon  the community by
his first subsequent act — the  removal of his children
from the almshouse ; and a return to the true indepen-
dence of honest labor for their support.  For more than
ten years, he annually visited the rooms, to express the
grateful emotion, which all that time had not obliterated
from his memory.  There, the infant of eighteen months,
born blind, opened  its eyes upon a mother's face ;  and
the few remaining  years of the  old man of eighty, to
whom the  grasshopper was becoming a burthen, were
again cheered by the returning  light of day.  There, the
humble  artizan, rendered dependant upon the precarious
               o
               O 
18
charity  of others, was restored to the fruits of his own
honest labor. At these humble rooms, many an anxious
mother rejoiced in the restoration of some long afflicted
child ;  the broken down student returned to his books ;
and the lone female, who knew no other protector than
her industry, found relief from the brokenness of heart,
caused  by the loss of a sense that makes poverty a
double  calamity. In  a word, the blind were made to
see ; and the deaf to hear;  and hundreds were relieved
of diseases, which, if not necessarily fatal to  vision, were
by their annoyance, constantly interfering with the free-
dom of labor.
   Having thus  satisfactorily tested the experiment, the
surgeons now  thought the  time had arrived, which
authorized them to present the claims of this large class
of the poor to the attention of the public. Accordingly,
a meeting was called on the 13th  of March, 1826, at     y
which the Hon. John Welles presided.  The Report was
read.   Its simple statement of facts impressed all the
gentlemen present  with  a conviction of  the usefulness
and  importance of  the  Institution ; and  determined
them to give it a more perfect trial as a public charity.
In accordance with a vote there passed,  a  subscription
was  commenced. By  the  personal  exertions of one
gentleman, Mr. Lucius Manlius Sargent, more than two
thousand dollars were  collected in  one week, as a per-
manent fund ;  and nearly  three hundred  dollars in
annual subscriptions, 
19
  The first meeting of the subscribers  who had thus
promptly replied to the call of the Committee, was held
at the Exchange Coffee House, on the evening of March
26, 1826.   Mr. Richard D. Tucker presided.  The result
of Mr. Sargent's effort being made known by Mr. Bryant
P. Tilden,  was regarded as a spontaneous  expression
favorable to the establishment of the Institution.  Ac-
cordingly, it was then regularly organized under the title
of the Boston Eye Infirmary, by the election of a board
of officers, composed of the  following gentlemen :
EDWARD TUCKERMAN,
LUCIUS M. SARGENT,
WILLIAM B. REYNOLDS,
BRYANT P. TILDEN,
RICHARD A. TUCKER,
EDWARD H. ROBINS,
ROBERT G. SHAW,
HENRY SARGENT,
HENRY RICE,
NATHANIEL G. SNELLING,
JAMES C. DUNN,
THOMAS C. AMORY,
Rev. JOHN CODMAN,
President.
 Vice President.
Secretary.
Treasurer.
- Managers.
  To the faithful guidance of these gentlemen at that
period, and of others, who from time to time, have filled
the vacancies made by death, and other causes; and
who with great  liberality of time and  money,  have
cherished its interests ;  it is indebted for the firm foun-
dation that  gives it its present  promise of permanent
usefulness. 
20
  In February of that year it became incorporated by
the legislature of the  commonwealth, under the title of
the Massachusetts Charitable Eye and Ear  Infirmary.
By the vote of the managers, its location was continued
in Scollay's buildings until the 6th of May, when it was
removed to more commodious apartments at  the corner
of Court and Tremont Streets.  At the expiration of six
years, it again removed to the  Salisbury building in
Summer Street, where it  continued  four years longer,
until removed to  the Gore Mansion  House, in Green
Street.
  The purchase  of this house may be considered the
necessary result  of the  new  wants of the  Infirmary,
which at an early period began to be developed, at these
rooms ;  where the labors of the first ten years of its ex-
istence as a  public Institution  were carried  on.  Each
of  these temporary  locations, though  they afforded
ample accommodations for patients afflicted  with  the
lighter forms of disease, who came daily for advice, and
were able to return to their homes;  were wholly unfit-
ted for the more dangerous forms that necessarily con-
fined them to their own places of abode.  The increased
labor thus laid upon the surgeons, by the duty of visiting
them  at their  own houses,  and endeavoring  to combat
disease in combination with all the privations of pov-
erty, soon showed the importance to the interests  of both
patients and surgeons, of enlarging the boundaries of the
Institution ;  and providing  some convenient habitation, 
21
where they could be sheltered, and provided wTith good
air, proper nourishment, careful nursing, and the other
obvious comforts required for the successful treatment
of disease.
   Nor was this all.  It was not the city alone, that sup-
plied this class of patients.   The adoption of the Insti-
tution by the subscribers, soon extended the knowledge
of its  existence  beyond  the limits of the city; and
brought a great number of patients to the rooms;  not
only from the  neighboring  towns, but  from the most
distant parts of  the State.   This  influx of strangers,
without money and without friends, with  no  place of
abode on their  arrival, and no means of procuring one,
and  who came wholly ignorant of the inability of the
Infirmary to provide for  their support, was a source of
perpetual embarrassment to the surgeons.  A large pro-
portion of these cases were of a serious character; some,
requiring delicate operations, and several weeks' attend-
ance for their removal; others, having acute affections
threatening the function of the organ, unless arrested by
appropriate  treatment; and  some so much aggravated
by the journey to the  city, as to render a return home
impossible.  The Records of the  Managers' quarterly
meetings show the frequency of these calls, in the small
sums of money that were set apart from time to time,
for such  as  were the most urgent; but which, as the
By-Laws of the Infirmary permitted none to be with-
drawn from its permanent fund, were always inadequate 
22
to the demand.   The Record, unseen by the human
eye, in which is written every deed of kindness, would
show, that most of these patients, were supported by the
donations of private benevolence, until they became so
numerous that even that source failed; and so it went on
increasing, until, as appears by the statistical report of a
Committee appointed  to  bring  the condition  of  the
Institution  before the Legislature  in 1835, and  1836,
one hundred and fifty-three towns in the State had been
represented at the rooms by their sick poor;  and that
no less than  one-third of the annual applicants came
from the  country.
  The frequent occurrence of these facts, had impressed
the Managers with the importance of securing some
permanent abode for such patients, as early as 1833.
It had been a subject of  much thought and frequent
discussion at every meeting: but from a determination
to adhere strictly to their early resolution to keep the
Institution  under  all circumstances, free from pecuniary
embarrassment, they never led to any action until June
1836. It then appeared by the Treasurer's accounts, that
the funds amounted to sixteen thousand dollars.  They
accordingly concluded, under the pressing necessities of
the Institution, to purchase  the Gore Mansion  House,
which several months previous had  been offered to them
on terms so liberal, as to be considered equivalent to a
valuable  donation from the heirs  of the late Samuel
Parkman ;  as appears by  a vote of thanks entered to
that effect on its records, Nov. 3d, 1836. 
23
  This purchase exhausted all the resources of the Insti-
tution.  The managers now believing that a ten vears'
trial of its results was of a character authorizing them
to seek legislative aid, appointed a committee to pre-
pare a petition, and  present it to the legislature.  The
highly favorable report of the joint  committee subse-
quently  appointed  by the  Senate, to investigate its
claims, and the noble manner in which the two honora-
ble bodies responded to their appeal, by the generous do-
nation of five thousand dollars for the repairs of the house,
and  two thousand  dollars per annum for the period of
five  years, was a gratifying evidence of their high esti-
mate of its merit;  and a strong incentive to its future
efforts.
   To Messrs.  Henry H. Childs,  Ethan A.  Greenwood,
Charles Thompson, J. V. C. Smith, and Rufus Saxton, the
gentlemen, who on this occasion so kindly befriended its
interests, the managers would take this opportunity in
behalf of the 3816 poor individuals, who, in the succeed-
ing five years, received its benefits ;  to  offer the ex-
pression of their grateful thanks; as well as to those who
on two successive occasions,  came forward to reiterate
its claims, and obtain a renewal of the generous grant.
   The repairs of the  building  were hardly finished,
when on  the  evening of  June 4th, it came near being
destroyed through  the wickedness  of some midnight
incendiary.   The  progress  of  the flames  were  not
arrested, until one  end of the house and  all  the  out 
24
buildings became their prey.   This misfortune delayed
the  completion  of the  work, until  the  19th of July,
1836; when  it  was  first opened for the reception of
patients.
  The removal to the Green Street House was a new
era in the history of the Institution.  With the grant of
the legislature — an honored  seal of its merit—with
adequate accommodations for the homeless of the city
and the country — with the  increasing facility thus ac-
quired for the successful treatment of disease — and the
confidence produced by a temporary relief from pecuni-
ary embarrassment, it entered upon a course of new and
more prosperous action.   Restricted hitherto by narrow
means and inadequate accommodations, its efforts had
been wholly expended upon the patients who sought its
aid.   The surgeons were now desirous of extending its
usefulness by making  it a school of observation to med-     >
ical  students, to  whom  its  doors  were  from  that
time  freely thrown open.  A course  of lectures on the
diseases of the eyes, were established  by the Directors ;
and  delivered at  the  Infirmary by Dr. John Jeffries ;
and  subsequently for six successive  years at the Tre-
mont Medical School, by Dr. Reynolds ;  and at a still
later period, by Dr. George Bethune.  Having been thus
rendered a school of surgery, it was visited by a large
number of medical pupils; many  of whom have since
become eminent  in  this, as in all  other branches of
medical science.   The Institution is  proud  to number 
25
       among those, some who  now hold in great honor, the
       highest places in the gift of the profession.  Thus its
       benefits have been extended far beyond the city of its
       origin ; until a knowledge of this once neglected branch,
       through the influence of this and other similar Institu-
       tions, has come to be considered, here as in Europe, a
       necessary branch of medical education ; and produced
       an amount of good over the whole country, probably
       far exceeding any direct  relief afforded to the patients
       who  have been treated within its walls.
         The medical history of the Infirmary, during the six-
       teen  successive years of its location  in Green  Street,
       presents nothing materially different in its details from
       the results of every annual report of the surgeons, ex-
       cept  the more satisfactory result of the treatment of dis-
       ease  ; and the great increase of patients, in consequence
>      of the  extraordinary immigration, which commencing
       soon  after  its occupation, began  to crowd our shores
       with  the poor of Europe.  The  Infirmary was the first
       Charity to  feel its influence.  From year to year the
       applicants for aid  went on increasing, until it appears
       that  while  in 1836, which  was the first year, the num-
       ber was only 698 ; during the past year, the names of
       no less than 2004 persons are recorded on the surgeons'
       report.  Since the foundation of the Infirmary, the same
       record shows the names of more than 25,000 patients, of
       whom,  since the  occupation of the Gore House, 1580,
       have  been  received as inmates within its walls.  The
                    4 
26
existence of such an amount of disease in our midst, so
obviously incapable of being treated at Hospitals or any
other establishment designed for the treatment of gene-
ral diseases, however  similar they may be in the consti-
tutional causes that produce them ; and in the principles
on which they are  to be treated;  presents a most unan-
swerable proof, not only of the utility, but of the neces-
sity of such an Institution in every crowded capital.
  The records  of  the Institution during the last ten
years, afford an almost startling  proof of the truth of
this  assertion.  From 1836 to  1841, the rooms of the
new Infirmary provided a sufficient accommodation for
all persons who applied for  admission as House patients.
In 1841, their numbers began to  increase, and went on
advancing in a progressive ratio, until, as appears by the
annual reports, in 1845  they  were more than doubled,
and  1848 and 1849, they  were  nearly  trebled.   The
house,  originally  considered large enough for all its
future demands, had thus become too small for the ac-
commodation  of the  vast  crowd that now sought its
shelter.  Not originally intended for its present purpose,
it was inconvenient  in  its  domestic arrangements; de-
ficient in the spaces allotted to the patients ; and to its
attendants, medical and domestic  ; and unprovided with
all the modern contrivances demanded for the successful
treatment of disease.  Once more, as in the early periods
of the institution, it was frequently compelled, for want
of room, to shut its doors  upon  many who sought and 
27
needed its shelter; and once more the  managers were
forced to take some decisive measures to procure a situ-
ation better adapted to its new and increasing wants.
After  much  deliberation, they  determined to erect a
building, which by embracing  every  necessary arrange-
ment, should be  as permanent as the future history of
the Institution might require.
  In the hope of procuring  the necessary funds, the
managers once more sought the aid of the  legislature ;
who again expressed their confidence in the Infirmary,
by the liberal donation of fifteen thousand dollars, on
condition that ten thousand dollars should be raised from
other sources.  To this grant, they afterwards added, in
May 1850, another of five thousand dollars. In addition
to this, the President  of the  Infirmary, Mr. Robert  G.
Shaw,  whose zealous interest in its welfare is recorded in
all its acts  for the long period of twenty-four years, in
which  he has been one of its officers, offered the gener-
ous donation of five  thousand  dollars, on condition that
fifteen thousand  dollars  should be raised  from  other
sources, exclusive of  the $15,000  granted by the legisla-
ture.
  The ready manner in which the community responded
to both these calls, by subscribing the above sums, best
shows the gradual but certain progress of the Infirmary
to public  favor  through the healing influence of its
salutary labor.
  The  necessary  funds thus obtained through the be- 
28
nevolent donations of the State, and private individuals
of the city, the lot of land on which  this building now
stands was purchased May 17, 1848; a building Com-
mittee was  appointed on the  same day, consisting of
Messrs. Robert G. Shaw, I.  W. Edwards, and  Samuel
Hooper, who immediately commenced the duty imposed
upon them; selected the talented Mr.  Edward  Cabot
as its architect, and Mr. Jonathan Preston, as its builder,
and gave to the work their undivided attention, and the
fruits of ther wise experience, until May 7th, 1850, when
it was finished, and ready for the reception of patients;
and where we  trust it will ever remain, an honor to the
gentlemen by  whose  wisdom it was erected, and a bless-
ing to the poor of our State  and city.
  The fiscal, like the medical history of the Infirmary,
is a subject worthy of a moment's notice, as an illustration
of the character and results of the Institution.  Com-      >
mencing in  1826, with  the  small  fund  of $2,700,
and  $300 in  annual  subscriptions, the property grad-
ually accumulated, without  any especial effort on the
part  of the managers, until in 1836, it amounted to
$16,000 ;  in  1838, to  $31,079; in 1842, to  $33,476;
in 1844, to $38,283 ; in 1845, to $43,379 ; and in 1846,
to more  than  $50,000 ;  since  which  period, by  the
liberality of the legislature, and the citizens of Boston,
in answer to  the appeal above mentioned, it has still
further increased, till it now amounts to $97,286   Of
this  sum, $70,000 is invested  in real estate,  leaving a 
29
balance only of $27,286 in available funds.  And yet
from the  year 1829, no appeal in behalf of the funds
has ever been made to the public.  With the exception
of the sums presented by the State and city for the new
building, all  its funds  have flowed to it in the form of
voluntary  donations from private individuals.  On one
occasion only in 1828,  the annual  report  of  the sur-
geons containing a detail of its medical results, awakened
a strong interest in its behalf; and led  to the appoint-
ment of a committee  to investigate its condition and
claims,  and to devise some measures to promote its be-
nevolent ends.
   The forcible appeal of that Committee,* whose names
were a sufficient guarantee  of the merit of its claims,
was not  immediately  productive  of any  assistance  ;
although of  great  utility in  extending  information in
regard to the Infirmary, till then almost unknown; and
awakening  a sympathy in  many minds  in its  favor.
From that time, its finances began to improve ;   and
every new want was followed by a corresponding supply;
not from any appeal to the public, but from the simple
offerings of private charity.   In the noiseless pursuit of
its work of  kindness,  a voice was heard.  It was the
grateful voice  of the  poor man.  It  came not to the
  * Edward Tuckerman, Esq., Rev. Joseph Tuckerman, Rev. Lyman Beecher,
Rev. Daniel Sharp, Rev. Charles Lowell, Rev. Ezra S. Gannett, Benjamin
D. Green, Esq., William B. Reynolds, Esq. 
30
busy community ; but it reached  the  ear of the poor
man's friend. The noble legacy often thousand dollars, by
Mr.William Payne, was from the recollection, while dying
in a  foreign land, of a poor  dependant, whom he had
formerly confided to its care.  The five thousand dollars,
bequeathed by Mr. John Parker, was the tribute of a
generous emotion for the  relief of a servant to whom he
was  attached.   The six thousand dollars, willed in the
same year by Mr. Daniel  Waldo, was the gift of a heart
warmed by what his own eyes had seen of an Institution
founded on the wants of the poor.  The ten thousand
dollars, given by Mr. John Broomfield, treasured in long
self-denial, was the gift of the poor man's friend, to the
Institution, which, in his wisdom, could best befriend him.
The same  is true of the valuable legacies of Mr. Todd ;
the venerable Jeremy Belknap, and his two sisters;
and of Mrs. Benjamin Joy, all of whom remembered the
poor in their dying hour ; and of Mr. Samuel Appleton,
whose whole life has been a blessing to the poor. And so
of the lamented Gossler, the  stranger beloved in our
midst; who in his honored walk  with the rich, forgot
not the poor ; and who, in confiding their interests to the
wisdom of his friends, Messrs. Joseph Iasigi and Nathan-
iel Thayer, as they were  watching with the devotion of
friendship about his dying bed,  best subserved them,
through this  benevolent  Institution.   These instances,
with one  exception, are  recounted in  memory of the
dead ; but not in forgetfulness of the many still living, 
31
whose  names are inscribed  among the contributors;  or
of that lady, who, in the evening hour, left a thousand
dollars in a nameless note, at the Treasurer's door. She
never permitted us to know or record her name ;  but it
is written in heaven.  If still among the living, she may
perhaps  learn that the friends  of the Institution will
ever cherish the memory of her secret kindness.
   By the strict economy uniformly exhibited in the ex-
penditure of these slowly accumulating funds, — always
keeping  within its means, however limited ; and never
unable to  meet its just demands;  the  Institution, if
never rich, has never been poor.  In  1827, the annual
expenditure  was  only  $473  for the relief of 645
patients.  In  1849,  it did not  exceed $2483 for the
treatment of more  than  2000 patients.   From these
two extremes  of its first and last year, may be seen the
striking disproportion  exhibited in every year, between
the amount of professional benefit conferred by the  In-
firmary,  and its pecuniary expenditure ; and from  its
present prosperous condition, the wisdom of the early
decision  of the  managers,  to  preserve it under all cir-
cumstances, free from debt.   No other charity is capable
of effecting the same amount of good, with so small an
amount of means.  Its whole history has been a singular
example of rigid  economy and enlarged liberality.
During the whole period of its existence,  its doors have
never  been closed upon  any applicant,  whom it was
able to receive ; and its last dollar expended for their 
32
 benefit.  In  the freeness of its charity, with constantly
 accumulating means, it has  never gathered a  surplus
 fund ; and  in  the  steadiness of its economy,  it has
 always been able to meet every just demand.  In its
 present elevated position, with its increased capacity of
 doing  good,  it  is poorer than at any previous time ;
 more capable of fulfilling the noble work of  charity
 than perhaps any other Institution, it is still itself sup-
 ported by charity.
   Such are the  few facts constituting the short history
 of the  Massachusetts Charitable  Eye Infirmary — pre-
 sented as they stand on its records;  and purposely left
 to tell their own tale of mercy.   In full faith we com-
 mend it to your  continued sympathy and care.
   I will not close without reminding its benefactors of the
 faithful labors, and the wise discretion of the gentlemen
 to whom they have for  so many years confided its well-     y
 fare  : who have  watched its feeble infancy with paternal
 care ; and  guided the  long period of its slow growth,
 with  so much  wisdom ; maintaining an  unwavering
 faith under all its discouragements ; and persevering in
 unabated effort, until the noble object of their solicitude
 has attained  a vigorous growth,  that gives it this day
the promise  of enduring usefulness.
  I shall be pardoned for a passing allusion to its medi-
cal officers—to Dr. John  Jeffries, one of its founders,
 who separated himself from it in 1841, after a faithful
service of fifteen years;  with the gratitude of thousands, 
33
 who had been soothed by his kindness, and relieved by
 his skill.  And to Dr. Robert W. Hooper, and Dr. George
 A. Bethune, who have also served its interests with great
 fidelity, from 1835 to the present  time ;  often  at the
 expense of their own professional advancement;  and
 reaping no other reward than the promotion of science,
 and the relief of human suffering.
   Nor should I be true to the spontaneous feelings  of my
 heart, were I to pass over in silence, another,* who, as
 the matron of this  Establishment, has  for many  years,
 with great self-denial, and abounding toil, manifested a
 wisdom in action ; a patience in trial; and a kindness
 of manner, that has  rendered  her influence second to
 none in the promotion of its benevolent ends.  The Sur-
 geons and Managers, the only witnesses of her untiring
 devotion  to  the welfare of the thousands  who in this
 humble Charity, have been the objects of her care;  of the
 sound judgment manifested under the peculiar trials in-
 separable from the situation ; of her gentleness and firm-
 ness to  the worthy and the unworthy;  and of the  Chris-
 tian  spirit always brought to her difficult task, will bear
 witness to her merit.  The world  will know little of the
 many trials, or the noiseless triumphs  of her lot.   But
if the cup of cold water given in kindness is not  to be
forgotten,  she  will receive her reward.
    *Mrs. Mary Homer.

5 
MANAGERS.
ROBERT G. SHAW, President.
J. WILEY EDMANDS, Treasurer.
JAMES LAWRENCE, Secretary.
JOHN A. BLANCHARD,
MOSES GRANT,
SAMUEL HOOPER,
CHARLES H. MILLS,
HENRY RICE,
G. HOWLAND SHAW,
S. D. TOWNSEND, M. D.,
W. W. TUCKER,
J. H. WOLCOTT, 
ORIGINAL  SUBSCRIBERS.
         Samuel Appleton,      .......        $40
         Thomas C. Amory,........      40
         John Amory,........         40
         Nathan Appleton,.....             .40
         Mrs. T. C. Amory,.......         40
         Ebenezer T. Andrews,.......      40
         Peter C. Brooks,........        100
         George Bond,.........      40
         Peter C. Brooks, Jr.,.......         40
         Mrs. Catherine Codman,.......      40
         John Codman,........         50
         James C. Dunn,........      40
         Samuel A. Eliot,........         40
         John S. Ellery,........      40
         Benjamin D. Greene,.......         40
         John Gray,.....         ...      40
         John C. Gray,........         40
         Benjamin Guild,........      40
         Gov. Christopher Gore,.......         40
         Gardiner Greene,........      50
"*        John Hubbard,........         40
         Henry Hubbard,........      40
         Samuel Hubbard,........         40
         Joseph Head,.........      40
         Charles Jackson,........         50
         John Lowell,    .........       40
         Theodore Lyman, Jr.,.......         40
        Abbott Lawrence,........100
        Amos Lawrence,  ........        100
        Mrs. Ann McLean,........       40
        Israel Munson,     ........         40
        William Phillips,........       40
        William Prescott,       .......         40
        William Payne,.......,       40
        Thomas H. Perkins,.......         40
        Mrs. John Phillips,........       40
        Jonathan  Phillips,       .......         40
        Francis Parkman,         ,......       50
        John Parker,      ,,.,.,.,         50 
36
Edward H. Robbins,
William Reynolds,
Henry Rice,
John Rogers,
Ebenezer Rollins,
Edward Reynolds,
William Sawyer,
T. T. Slade,   .
Ignatius Sargent,
Robert G. Shaw,
David Sears,
George C. Shattuck,
Richard D. Tucker,
William Tuckerman,
John Tappan,
Edward Tuckerman,
Lewis Tappan,
John Welles,  .
Samuel Whitwell, Jr.,
Arnold Welles,
John D. Williams,
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
60
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
40
$2,600
GENTLEMEN WHO  HAVE BEEN  ANNUAL  SUBSCRIBERS  IN
                      FORMER  YEARS.
Francis Amory,
William T. Andrews,
Josiah Bradlee,
George  Bethune,
Joseph P. Bradlee,
George Brinley,
James W. Burditt,
Sally Brown,
J. Belknap,
Edward Brooks,
Samuel Billings,
G. & M. Brimmer
Dr. Beecher,
Andrew Brimmer,
Susan Brimmer,
James Carter,
Thomas P. Cushing,
Benjamin Joy,
John B.Jones,
Caleb Loring,
Charles Lowell,
Edmund Munroe,
Josiah Marshall,
William H. Prescott,
James Perkins,
Peter Parker,
William B. Reynolds,
William Ropes,
Nathaniel P. Russell,
Chandler Robbins, Jr.,
Henry Sargent,
N. G. Snelling,
Lucius M. Sargent,
Nathaniel R. Sturgis, 
37
Cornelius Coolidge,
Charles Cleveland,
Ebenezer Chadwick,
C. J. Caznove,
L. A. Caznove,
James  C. Dunn,
Thomas Dennie,
William Dall,
William Davis,
John Doggett,
 Charles P. Dexter,
 J. Brazer Davis,
Jonathan Davis,
 Benjamin Dearborn,
 Edward Everett,
 Nathaniel L. Frothingham,
 Ebenezer Francis,
 Isaac W. Goodrich,
 Moses Grant,
 Henry Gassett,
 Francis C. Head,
 Darius B. Holbrook,
 Joseph Head, Jr.,
 H. J.  Holmes,
 Isaac Mc Lellan,
 Andrews Norton,
 H. G. Otis, Jr.,
 George Odin,
 Benjamin T. Pickman,
DO
Anonymous,
Nathan Appleton,
Charles Amory,
Jamas  S. Amory,
Edward Austin,
Samuel Appleton,
William Appleton,
Benjamin Adams,
Anonymous,
Miss Mary  Belknap,
Joseph Tilden,
Samuel Torrey,
Charles Thatcher,
George Trott,
John P. Thorndike,
Charles Tappan,
Augustus Thorndike,
Thomas Vose,
Samuel H. Walley,
Isaac Winslow,
Henry Wainwright,
Charles White,
Charles Wrells,
Samuel H. Walley, Jr.,
Ferdinand E. White,
Nathaniel Amory,
N. R. Cobb,
George Darracott,
A Friend,
George Hallett,
John F. Priest,
Gorham Parsons,
Jeffrey Richardson,
Thomas B. Curtis,
Charles P. Curtis,
Henry Lee,
William  Appleton,
J. H. Adams,
H.  G. Otis,
ORS.

 .....$2,000
   .....1,100
 .....        200
   .....100
                             25
   .".'.'.'  .   2,050
 .....1,000
   .....25
 .....        100
   .   *.    .     .     .   1,000 
38
Jeremiah Belknap,........1'°^(*
Miss M.  A. Brimmer,.......j"
Sarah Belknap,........1>*>W
George Bond,.........}
Peter C. Brooks,........I'^O
Mrs. Edward Blake,........10°
Joseph P. Bradlee,.......        ?Jj
Dwight Boyden,........       ™
John  Brown,.........        J0U
Nathaniel I. Bowditch........°0
Francis  Bacon     .         ....••        ^°
J. IngersoU  Bowditch,.......25
Josiah Bradlee,........       50°
James B. Bradlee,........10°
Peter C.  Brooks, Jr.,........        10°
John  A.  Blanchard,       .......100
John  Bryant,     .         .   *.....       10°
John Bryant, Jr.........100
William  S. Bullard,.......        25
John Bromfield,.........10,000
Ebenezer Chadwick,  ........        50
John P. Rushing,         .......#   1,100
Committee of Barnstable Celebration, from their surplus collection,    88
Thomas G. Cary,........25
George  B. Cary.........        30
Henry Cabot,.........50
Jonathan Chapman,.......        50
Henry Codman,........       50
Edward Codman,........        50
Jonas Chickering,  .       .....*           100
Mrs. Samuel Dexter,.......        20
James C. Dunn,........100
Mrs. Davenport,........        10
Peter R. Dalton,........       50
James Davis, Jr.,........       100
Henry Edwards,........100
J. W. Edmands,........       275
A Friend,.........       20
A Friend,.........       100
A Friend,..........       50
John C. Gray.........       500
Ozias Goodwin,........150
Mrs. E. C. Greene........       250
Francis  C. Gray,........400
Horace  Gray,  '........       200
 Gustavus Gossler,........1,000 
»
                                     39


         Sarah Greene,........        300
         William Gray,       .....,     .    .       25
         J. S.  Copley Greene,       ......        100
         John  Gardner,........       25
         Moses Grant,    ..       .......1.000
         Henry Grew,        .......•       25
         S.  Hood,.........         50
         George Hallett,........       50
         Mrs.  S. Hammond, Jr.,.......         50
         George Howe,       ........200
         Henry Hall,.........         50
         Franklin Haven,........100
         George O. Hovey,  ........         50
         Andrew T. Hall,........       25
         Augustine Heard,........        100
         Susan Inches,        ........       20
         Iasigi & Goddard,........         25
         Sarah Jeffries,........       50
         Mrs.  H. Joy,.........1,125
         Anna P. Jones,........       50
         Sarah Jackson     ........        600
         James Johnson,      ........      100
         George B. Jones,  ........         25
         George H. Kuhn,........       50
         William Lawrence,      .......        520
         A Lady,       .........       50
         George G. Lee,........        100
^        Lawrence & Stone,   ........      200
         Abbott Lawrence,       .......     1,100
         Amos Lawrence,       .......         100
         John  Lamson,  .........       50
         Minor S. Lincoln,  ........         25
         James Lawrence,    ........      100
         John  A. Lowell.........        500
         Theodore Lyman, Jr.,     .......      500
         Francis C. Lowell,.......        100
         Thomas Lee,   ........          100
         Little, Alden & Co.,.......         25
         Lincoln & Reed,........       25
         Amos A. Lawrence,.......        100
         George Lee,.........200
         Timothy C. Leeds,       .         .....         50
         Mons. Maeysel, proceeds of exhibition of Automiton,     .      134
         Israel Munson,   .........      3,100
         Samuel May,        ........       50
         James K. Mills,........        150 
40
H. G. Otis,
Mrs. Preston,
Mrs. Samuel Parkman,
John Preston,
Jonathan Phillips,
William C. Payne, .
John Parker,
John B. Parker,
Sarah P. Pratt,
Charles H. Parker,
Daniel P. Parker,
William P. Perkins,
Mrs. Robert Robert:
Henry Rice,
Henry B. Rogers,
Edward H. Robbins
Robert G. Shaw,
Francis Stanton,
Charles Stoddard,
Joshua Sears,  .
Ignatius Sargent,
William Sturgis,
John Simmons,
William W. Stone,
David Sears, .
John Tappan,
Upham, Appleton & Co.,
Thomas B. Wales,
Isaac Warren,
J. H. Wolcott,  .
E. A. & W. Winchester,
Misses Waldo,  .
Daniel Waldo,
Moses Williams,
William F. Whitney,
John D. Williams,
    30
    30
   100
    50
   500
10,000
 5,000
    50
   200
    25
    50
    25
   350
   500
   100
   100
 5,300
   100
    50
    25
    50
 1,000
    25
   100
   500
   200
    25
   600
   300
   275
    50
   400
 6,100
   100
    25
   250 
r
\