The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-24 00:00:00

LIVERPOOL EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY

The annual general meeting of the subscribers to the Eye
and Ear Infirmary was held on Saturday last, in the Claren-

.00ms, South John-street, for

e purpose of receiving

the report of the commit:cc on the proceed

past year, the election of officers, and the trans-

action of other business appertaining to the annual meeting

GEORGE GRANT, Esq., president of the institution, took

the chair

The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by observing that
the object of the meeting. was to receive the report of the pro-
ceedings of the Eye and Ear Infirmary during the past year.
It was not for him, perhaps, to enter into any statement of
details, as the report would be read which had been drawn up by
those who had witnessed the usefulness of the charity, and who
bad taken all due pains to promote and support it. He re-
gretted to state that au institution so eminently useful as this,
which had done such a vast extent of service to the suffering
poor, and others, should be so feebly supported in this large
and important place. He could only hope that they whom
he had the honour to address would be so kind as to use
their influence with their friends, and in that way contribute,
as much as possible, to the success of the institution, by
means of increased subscriptions, without which the institu-
tion, he feared, although he trusted it might not, must be
abandoned. He was sorry to hear that the charity was now
in debt, but he did not despair that through the exertions of
its supporters, a town so celebrated as this for every thing
charitable and good,. would step forward and maintain
an institution so eminently valuable and useful. He had no
more to say at present ; and he would conclude by calling
upon the Treasurer and Secretary to read their reports.
Mr. J OHN CROSSFIELD, treasurer to the institution, said,
that before reading his accounts he would state, that the
committee had practised every economy consistent with the
efficiency of the charity. The annual expenditure was con-
siderably short of £3OO, yet with that small means 9,000
cases had been relieved, a circumstance which afforded the
best proof of its utility. He was sorry to say that the insti-
tution had a debt of about £7O to commence the year with.
Ile hoped the announcement of this fact would induce in-
creased support, for it was to be much lamented if one of the
most useful institutions ip Liverpool should be neglected.
Mr. Crossfield then read the accounts. The receipts appeared
to be £2BB. Os. lad. ; and after defraying every expense there
was ;1 balance remaining due to the treasurer of £23. 16s. 10d.,
which, with £5O of bills yet to come in, would make the
debt upwards of £7O.

Air. T. C. DUNLEVIE, the honorary secretary, then read
the report of the committee.
The report stated that in the Eye Department of the in-
stitution, from its establishment in 1820, 35,864 patients had
received relief, and in the Ear Department, from 1839, the
period of its commencement, 6,285 persons had been bene-
litted—thus shewing that in two of the most sensitive and
useful organs, the eye and the ear, 42,149 individuals have
been restored to comparative happiness. This vast good had
been effected at the trifling annual outlay of £290, and out
of which, independently of out-door relief, the committee
have been enabled to maintain and relieve, during last year,
5U in-door patients,—sorne from Lancashire and other places
in England; others from Ireland and Scotland, and some
from even North America.

Patients suffering from contusions, wounds, burns, and
particles of steel, &c., to the number of 145 of our best
operative mechanics have, during last year, been afforded
relief, and by such relief were enabled to resume their re-
spective occupations.

The committee have received during the year a donation of
£25 from John Ripley, Esq., and donations from George
Grant, Esq., and three other gentlemen to the amount of
£23 45., yet this excellent charity is in debt, and the com-
mittee appeal strongly to the liberality of the public for
increased support.

After reading this report Mr. NEILL, the philanthropic
and efficient medical officer of the institution, read a number
of interesting cases, showing in their results the valuable
benefits conferred by the society through the skill and at-
tention of himself and the other medical officer of the
establishment. We extract two or three as well worth the
perusal of our readers :

" John Fyvie, aged 20, from Rathfriland, County of Down,
Ireland, came to your hospital on the 11th of April, quite
blind : in infancy an injury had destroyed one eye—the other
became blind from cataract. He left the institution on the
lith of June, with his sight restored by operation. This
young man's sight was wonderfully acute. I have received a
letter from the Rev. Mr. Forde, his patron, saying, that ob-
jects so distant as to other eyes to require a telescope, to his
eyes are quite apparent. This circumstance I have heard
others who have been operated on for cataract also remark."
" Jane Todd, aged 20—a fine hale young woman—was a
dairy maid at Scarisbrick. In infancy she was pricked in
the eye by a needle, and her sight in that eye was lost; but
with one eye she managed to get on very well, and was a
happy girl in possessing a good one. However, in her daily
duties one day she was unluckily struck in this good eye by
the horn of a cow, and the eye was knocked to atoms. She
was now quite blind, and a more broken-hearted creature I
never saw. She came to our institution. For the now in-
jured eye I could do nothing ; but for that, of the sight of
which she had been deprived in her infancy, I told her I
hoped she might have her sight—waiting until the inflam-
matory effects of her present accident had passed by. I
then operated upon the eye which had been long dark, and
the Almighty willed that the operation should avail, and her
sight was restored, and she is now again ranching her cows
and pursuing her duties as a merry, tidy dairy-maid.

" Robert fyer, aged 57, was a' farrner, ' well to do,' in
Rainford. He consulted me, about three years ago, as a
private patient. He had cataract in both eyes. He dis-
liked my operating fee, and chose to have the operation
done in the country, and one eye was lost ! Ashamed now
to come to me, he visited Manchester, where a similar ope-
ration was followed by a similar unfortunate result, and lie
was now supposed hopelessly blind. His farm was not at-
tended to—all went wrong—he was no longer "well to do"—
and three years blindness made him a very poor man. Lord
Derby recommended him to your institution, and he became
my patient—and the result of the operations on this man
was completely successful. The pupils of his eyes had been
clostd from the injuries inflicted in the former operations.
I was enabled to make false pupils, through which the light
entered ; and lie now visits Liverpool market every Satur-
day morning, driving his own market cart. His sight is
now quite restored, and he will soon again be ' well to do.' "
These were the cases in the eye department which he had
thought it well to mention. In the ear hospital there was a
novelty : he believed there was only one institution in the
world where the same means were made use of for overcom-
ing deafness, therefore, as the matter was special, and as
three years had passed by since a similar report had been
made, it was advisable that a report of these new means
should be laid before the public, and the present seemed the
best opportunity of doing so. Mr. Neill then read the fol-
lowing :

" Four years having nearly elapsed since the formation of
the Ear department of this institution, and as it originated
in some mechanical improvements which gave facilities for
investigating the causes of disease in some of the remotest
and hitherto inaccessible parts of the organ of hearing, it
may be naturally expected that the results of experience ob-
tained would have placed the surgeon in a position to declare
whether his expectations have been realised, and that hu-
manity had been benefitted by the introduction of the new
means. It is a great and a common folly when a new matter
is discovered to laud its powers beyond its capabilities ; and
it would have been a great folly had I made promise that
the air-press and its accompanying vapour apparatus could
have done more than act as, first, a means to ascertain (as by
a stethescope) the state of the inner passages of the ear, and
afterwards convey such stimulants as were required to restore
the diseased structures to health ; arid I did not do more than
this; whilst I showed that, through this instrument, a power
was given to the surgeon, which he did not before possess, to
gain a knowledge of diseases in a part hitherto unapproach-
able ; and, when made aware of the nature of the disease, to
treat it medically or surgically, as was required. Now, I
neither deceived myself nor you. The means were all they
promised and I promised, and they have fully carried out all
my expectations. In catarrhal deafness, the common disease
of the climate, I am bound to declare the extreme usefulness
of the air-press in detailing to me the exact state of the parts,
and affordinir me a fair chance of treating the disease with a
likelihood of benefit to the patient. lam the more inclined
to thus publicly identify myself with the introduction and
use of this apparatus in Liverpool, and in connection with a
great public charity, as it may be a means of setting aside
much evil and great drawbacks to the continuance of the
modern practice and treatment of diseases of the inner ear.
Anonymous writers--but especially one who has written in
the London Medical Gazette, and who I will guarantee has
never in his life seen the " air-press"—have pronounced the
operation dangerous, and likely to do great evil to the patient.
I did not reply to " Anonymous," believing that Mr. Filcher,
a learned and eminent practitioner of modern aural surgery in
London, and writer on the subject; or Mr. Yearsley, a gen-
tleman connected with a large public hospital, also in London,
would, had he been worthy of notice, have done so. But,
as the following remarks of this writer have travelled through
all the medical publications of the kingdom, I feel myself
called on to state, that what he has written has been written
in utter personal ignorance of the subject ; and the only two
cases of evil which lie has been able to detail, are cases which
have not occurred in the hands of an hospital surgeon, or
indeed is there proof that the evil did arise from the use of
the air-press. One was a man who died in the house of a
wonder-working doctor in London. In evidence before the
coroner, the doctor or his assistant avowed that the man
used the air-press in their absence, he being alone, and he
was found choked. The other was a case occurring in the
practice of a wandering aurist. This patient was supposed
to have died from injury inflicted by the violent use of the
instrument. But are two such supposed cases, and occur-
ring in the practice of such individuals, to warrant remarks
that follow? The British and Foreign Medical Retesi. rv, in
noticing the paper of ' Anonymous,' says :
" This paper is violently dissuasive of air injections of
the eustachian tube. The author seems to think that the
injection is not actually effected in a great many cases in
which it is pretended by the operator, and imagined by the
patient, to be done. Among the disastrous effects which
have resulted from attempts to perform the operation, or
from its actual performance, he enumerates inflammation of
the throat and tube itself, as well as of the tympanum, so
severe as sometimes to terminate in suppuration; emphy-
sema, caused by laceration of the mucous membrane of the
eustachion tube, or posterior flares ; rupture of the mem-
brane of the tympanum ; diliquium, so protracted as to
threaten life ; death.'
" When the Liverpool Ear Institution was first publicly
acknowledged, at the first public meeting, Dr. Formby and
Mr. Bickersteth, who had repeatedly seen me operate, and
witnessed the results, were the individuals to move and
second the formation of a public establishment where the
poor might avail themselves of a means to relieve their deaf-
ness: and were they likely to advise a rash or dangerous
practice ? Since that time three years have gone by, and I
have operated on thousands ; and as a contradiction to
" Anonymous," I call on you all, and on all my medical
brethren, to denounce me if they have ever heard of the most
trifling injury occurring during this operation in my hands,
or succeeding to it. Whilst in most of the individuals round
me I see the relations and friends of a host of patients, who
are willing to acknowledge that their restored hearing has re-
sulted from the application of the air-press, and of the vapour
apparatus."

The CHAIRMAN said to him, this was a most interesting
report. It ought to be published, for be was sure that if the
would
dc
give
knew how
rolmmow meuxcthougsioovodsutbpepoirnt.stitution was doing they
The Rev. R. L. TOWNSEND rose to move the first resolu-
tion. He was quite sure that few remarks would be required
from him to induce the meeting to adopt the resolution which
he had the honour to move. After the interesting report read
by the Secretary and the cases which had been read by their
skilful honorary surgeon Mr. Neill, shewing that upwards of
40,000 persons had received relief since the establishment
of the institution, he thought there could be little doubt that
this charity had the strongest claims upon the benevolent
consideration of the community. He regretted deeply that
it should languish for want of funds; but if gentlemen would
but be kind enough to make its claims and its utility known,
be was sure there would be such a response as would at once
place it in a flourishing position. He thought the mere fact
that 40,000, and upwards, of poor had received benefit from
this charity, would be enough to stamp its usefulness, without
one word more. (Hear, hear.) With these observations he
begged to move the first resolution, that the report and trea-
surer's accounts be passed and printed.
Dr. AunuexLE, of Maranham, seconded the motion, and
it was unanimously carried.
The Rev. Dr. Imps., Principal of the Royal Institution
School, moved the second resolution, which thanked the
officers of the charity for their valuable services during the

past year. The rev. gentleman said it was with great con'-;
cern he had heard that which he was not aware of before,
that this excellent charity was in debt; but, perfectly con-
curring in the sentiments uttered by the chairman as regarded
the benevolent spirit of the town, he felt confident that, on
being better known, if is were only from motives of economy,
the charity would be better supported than it was. The
number of cases they had heard, as had been properly ob-
served, shoved that the greatest good had been done at the
least cost. lle did not believe, if any of those cases had
presented themselves at our own doors, but that the impulse
of a great many would have been to put them, if there bad
been no establishment like this, under the care of a medical
gentleman upon whom we could rely, and have become re-
sponsible fora suitable remuneration to him. Ile (Dr. Iliff)
did not scruple to say, that in this respect the town of Li-

verpool ought to consider itself- providentially placed, in
having medical aid superior to which was not to be found in
the kingdom, nor indeed in any part of Europe or the world.
(Hear, hear.) We knew hoot valuable the time was of medi-
cal gentlemen, yet they would not allow any cases to go without
relief, although they might be benefitted at the same time
they were sacrificing time and abilities; and although these
remarks would apple to the other officers, he was sure the
name last upon the list would not be the least in the estima-
tion of the subscribers. (Hear.)
Mr. G. CILOSSFIELD seconded the resolution, and hoped
it would be cordially adopted. It was the first time he had
attended a meetim of this institution, and he was filled with
astonishment at the number of cases relieved and the amount
of good done at so small a relative cost. He united in the
sentiment that, if this charity could fairly be brought before
the public, there was a charitable disposition abroad which
would not allow it to languish. He did not know what was
intended with regard to the interesting cases which the
medical officer had read ; but if they could be published
along with the report, and circulated, they would go far
towards bringing mote subscriptions. The resolution was
unanimously carried.

Mr. linitmoon BANNER moved the appointment of the
committee and officers of the institution for the ensuing
year.

Mr. linTcniNsox seconded the motion, and it was
unanimously carried.

On the motion of Mr. H. BANNER, seconded by. Mr.
NEILL, the thanks of the meeting were voted to Mr. Grant
for his services in the chair, and the proceedings terminated.

OPENING OP THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.

The Lower School of the Collegiate Institution was opened
yesterday morning, with the most promising tokens of suc-
cess. A larger number of pupils presented themselves (or
admission than were expected ; the exact figures we have not
been able to obtain. James Cox, Esq., 8.A., of Trinity
College, Dublin, is the head master of this department, a
gentleman whose zeal and qualifications eminently fit him for
the situation.

The Middle School will be opened on Monday next. From
the number of pupils already entered, for this department,
the Middle School promises to be very large. The Upper
School will commence on Monday, the 13th of February.

We are exceedingly gratified to observe the spirit with which
is noble institution continues to be sunnorted. Thi. i.

proved by the manner in which a number. .of its promoters
have come forward to increase their donations. For instance,
Mr. Gladstone has increased his donation of £750 to £1000;
Mr. Edmund Molyneux, (Chairman of the Education Com-
mittee of the Town Council,) from £lOO to £lOOO ; Mr. Jas.
Lawrence from £250 to £lOOO ; Mr. Josias Booker from
£750 to £lOOO ; Mr. William Shand from £lOO to £250 ;
Mr. Sarni. Holme from £l5O to £250, and many others
whose disinterested munificence will be properly appreciated.
The total amount of donations is, we understand, in round
numbers, 423,000, whilst, to complete the Institution in all
its parts, about £12,000 more will be reqaired, making an ag-
gregate of £35,000. In do-sing this brief notice we may ob-
serve that presents of books, sculpture, and other works of
art, will, doubtless, be very serviceable in forwarding the
objects contemplated by the establishthent of this splendid
institution.