Defunct London Eye Hospitals.

SPEAKING of ophthalmic hospitals and schools in England, William White Cooper related in 1857, before the First International Ophthalmological Congress,' that of the then existing eye hospitals in London two were founded in 1804: The Royal Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, established by Mr. Wathen, oculist to George III, and Moorfields, by John Cunningham Saunders. An editorial in the Ophthalmic Review for 18662 speaks of six eye institutions in London, apart from seven ophthalmic departments in some of the larger general hospitals. Presumably the Royal Infirmary, Cork Street, must have been the sixth of the ophthalmic institutions, as the five eye hospitals existing today were all founded before 1866-the Royal Westminster Ophthalmic Hospital in 1816, by George James Guthrie; the Central London Ophthalmic Hospital in 1843, by Alfred Smee; the Western Ophthalmic Hospital (? by Henry Obre) in 1856 and the Royal Eye Hospital in 1857, by John Zachariah Laurence. Though one of the six was destined to disappear before another five years this group represented the hardy survivors of a much larger brood. A search in the library of the Royal College of Surgeons revealed a record of the existence of something approaching an eye hospital as early as 1771, whilst the Medical Directories from 1845 onwards bear witness to a large number in existence between 1845 and 1865, and to three unsuccessful attempts at the formation of new eye hospitals later on. Some of the defunct eye hospitals were ephemeral, but this can hardly be said of the Western Ophthalmic Institution, which existed for about 10 years, or the West London and Chelsea Infirmary for Diseases of the Eye, and certainly not of the North London Infirmary with its life of about 20 years and its brilliant staff.