The disorders of the eye and its appendages are more numerous and diversified than those of any other member of the human body, and some of the operations for its relief require the nicest combinations of delicacy and skill. Whatever knowledge the ancients may have possessed of this subject, certain it is that the medical fraternity, during the middle ages, walked in profound darkness. It was not until the latter part of the seventeenth century that the anatomy of the eye was well understood. The German surgeons have the honor of rescuing from deep obscurity the science of ophthalmic surgery. In 1773 Barthe first founded the Vienna School, which has since become so celebrated. The impulse given to the subject in Germany was soon communicated to England, and in 1804, Mr. Sanders founded the London Eye Infirmary, whence have sprung similar charities in various parts of Great Britain and the Continent.

In 1816 Edward Delafield and John K. Rodgers, graduates of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York City, sailed for Europe to improve themselves in the knowledge of their profession. They had attended the usual course of lectures, each had practised a year in the New York Hospital, but as the institutions of our country were yet in their infancy they hoped by foreign study to render themselves better fitted for the responsible duties of the medical profession. While pursuing their studies in London they were induced to become pupils in the recently established Eye Infirmary. They had given the usual attention to, the study of the treatment of the eye, but soon discovered that they and their American instructors were profoundly ignorant of the whole subject. They instantly saw that here was an open field of great usefulness wholly untrodden in their own country, and they devoted themselves with untiring assiduity to this new branch of knowledge. Returning in 1818, they nobly resolved to establish an Infirmary. They were both young, possessed little means, had no reputation as physicians, yet in August, 1820 they hired two rooms on the second floor at No. 45 Chatham street, and publicly announced that on certain days and hours of each week indigent persons afflicted with diseases of the eyes would be gratuitously treated, and furnished with all necessary medical appliances. What was undertaken as an experiment soon proved a success, for in less than seven months four hundred and thirty-six patients had applied and received treatment, and many astonishing recoveries had occurred. Having thus demonstrated the feasibility and utility of the undertaking, they now resolved to bring the matter before the public, and ask for the means to really found an Infirmary. A public meeting convened at the City Hotel on the 9th of March, 1821, to consider this subject, was eminently successful. A permanent organization was effected, and a committee raised to solicit subscriptions and temporarily conduct the Institution.

The members of the society were denominated governors, and they resolved that the payment of forty dollars or upwards should constitute one a governor for life, or the payment of five dollars per annum a yearly governor, with the privilege of sending two patients to the Infirmary for treatment at all times.