The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-16 00:00:00

THE EYE AND EAR INFIRMARY.

The annual meeting of the friends and subscribers to
this institution took place yesterday at the Clarendon-
rooms, and was most respectably attended. The Rev.
Thos. Bold was unanimously called to the chair.
Mr. HENRY CROSSFIELD (the secretary) read an ab-
stract of the accounts, first expressing his regret that the
institution, though most beneficial in its operations, was
still in debt. It appeared that the balance due to the
treasurer last year, was £23 Ms. 10d. ; the expenses for
the past year, including board of patients, salaries, medi-
cine, rent, &c., £286135. 4d. The subscriptions and
donations were for the year, £242 12s. Od., leaving due
on the account to the treasurer £44 is. 4d. He could
only attribute the want of adequate support to so excellent
a charity, to the circumstance of its not being generally
known to the public. He felt assured that if the commu-
nity were aware of the good it had done in relieving a vast
number of patients, and in restoring many to the blessing
of sight who would otherwise have remained in hopeless
darkness and despondency, in place of being useful mem-
bers of society, they would do for this charity not less
than for any of the others with which the town abounds.
The Rev. CHAIRMAN remarked on the very great faci-
lities offered by the institution to those afflicted. The
good it had done was not confined to the cases of cure,
but a still greater benefit had resulted from the immense
number of cases in which the threatened loss of sight had
been prevented.
Mr the surgeon
hegeo had drawnnoftheCh up
,Charity, then read the
following
ILL,
2287'ortwhich
out-patients have received medicines
and attendance in the Eye department of your charity,
and 55 persons have been received into the house from
the most remote parts of England, Ireland, and Scotland,
to have operations performed for the restoration of sight.
Since hefl3t2heindEividlunafilsriLavrey
bineelnBe2nOierd
thee
immense
on the books, and have received surgical assistance. The
tnumber
Ear department, founded in 1839, has, since its institution,
given relief to 8140 persons; in the past year the number
receiving assistance has been 1955. A most important
subject for your notice is the large number of mechanics
foundationof
u o,
who, in the exercise of their calling, chiefly in the great
foundries and railway works, have met with serious acci-
dents to their eyes, and are thus for the time unfitted for
labour. The number in the past year was 144.
" In presenting the foregoing report, the committee
feel regret in referring you to the treasurer's statement,
which announces a serious debt. This debt arises from
the increased calls upon the funds of the charity by pa-
tients coming from a distance, requiring operations for
the recovery of sight, and therefore requiring to be re-
ceived into the house, and whilst there to be fed and at.
tended to. At the present moment there are five indoor
patients, all from distances of above one hundred miles
from Liverpool.
" Your committee, in calling your attention to the im-
mense amount of good which your humble institution
accomplishes at the small annual expenditure of £242 125.,
fondly hope that, from the well-known philanthropy of
Liverpool, a public notice of these facts will speedily call
forth funds, not only to liquidate a debt which curbs the
usefulness of the charity, but afford the means of doing
more extensive good.
" Since the last annual meeting, it has been considered
advisable to alter, in some points, the arrangement of the
medical department, and, instead of a cupper and dis-
penser (a salaried officer), to appoint a well-educated pro-
fessional gentleman as assistant-surgeon, who should assist
the surgeons in their operations, compound the medicines,
and attend upon the patients in the unavoidable absence
of either of the medical officers. In the appointment of
Mr. Barrow, at the recommendation of Dr. Edwards and
Mr. Neill, your committee feel satisfied that they have
added much to the practical usefulness of your charity."
Mr. NEILL remarked, that the subscriptions were
£202 ; their revenue, £242 12s. For the past year they
had prescribed for and given gratuitously medicines in
2,287 eye cases ; and had done the same for 1,955 ear
cases; making a total of 4.242 persons. He begged to
call their attention to the relief they had afforded to a
class—to their employers of most useful men, me-
chanics and engineers in foundries and railways. The
number of these on the books this year, as suffering from
wounds and burns, was 144 ; and they would scarcely
credit it, that not a sixpence was subscribed by a rail-
way company. and that the whole amount of subscriptions
obtained from proprietors of foundries did not exceed £5.
The institution bad also received 55 poor destitute,
afflicted human beings, deprived of one_of the Almighty's
greatest blessings—sight ; and by the bounty of the sub-
scribers and donors they were fed and nursed, while the
surgeons of the institution urged their best skill and
efforts to restore them the sense they had lost, If they
would only spare time to visit the charity, and witness
the delight and gratitude of those whom their bounty
had made haapy, and to hear them in their own simple
and feeling way acknowledge the benefits they had re-
ceived at their hands—no trouble which they might have
in soliciting for support to the funds, and no drag that
' might be made upon their own purse-strings, would be
considered as irksome or annoying. (Hear.) To have
been the means of performing such good as in the case
he should relate would repay any one for a year of la-
bour,—and they would remember that he related several
such cases last year. The speaker here entered into the
particulars of an interesting case, of which the following are
the heads :—Ann M`Gardwell, aged 19, from Barnsley,
was admitted as a patient of this infirmary in Dec. 1843,
under the care of Mr. Neill. She had been blind for
five years. She had a pale and sickly aspect ; the right
eye was irrecoverably lost, and in the left there was
opacity of the cornea, that she could barely distinguish
day from night. Her father is a poor linen-weaver,
but was willing to make any sacrifice so thnt her sight
could be restored. With this view she was taken to
Sheffield, and placed under medical care for three
months, but without any benefit. She was then taken to
Hull, to a gentleman of considerable eminence as an
opthalmic surgeon, who pronounced her incurable. She
was next taken to Manchester, with no better success.
She returned home with her friends in despair, but being
taken ill at the latter part of last summer, was sent for
recovery to Southport. There she was noticed on the
beach by a farmer's wife, who, observing her sickly looks
and blindness, advised her to go to Liverpool, and en-
deavour to get into the Eye Infirmary—as she (the ad-
viser) had a daughter who was quite blind from injuries
on the eye, and who was there restored to sight. The
patient was on this advice brought to Liverpool, and was
operated upon for artificial pupil, on the sth of the same
month (December last)—a portion of the iris being re-
moved, so that an excellent pupil was found. No un-
toward symptoms followed the operation. On the con-
trary, her general health improved ; she now enjoys very
good sight, and is grateful and happy. This patient was
discharged on the 7th instant. There was also a case of
a lad, 15 years of age, who has obtained sight by operation,
having been born blind ; and there were many other cases
of great importance, but he would not delay the meeting
by relating them.
Mr. H. BANNER in moving the first resolution—that
the report he received, printed, and distributed, suggested
that the anecdote related by Dr. Neile should be appended
to it. He complimented the Secretary on the neatness
and accuracy of the accounts.
The other resolutions were then carried—the speakers
making some observations on moving and seconding them
—which we must abridge.

Mr. Crosafield thought if the institution were brought
more before the notice of the public it would be better
supported. He thought the railway companies, when
shares were high, could not do better than suscribe.
Here it appeared that several thousand patients had been
relieved at a cost of a shilling a head.
The Rev. W. Townshend remarked the charity was not
in addition to any other of a similar kind but stood alone ;
and he also thought that if it were known that so many
thousands were benefitted by it at so small a cost, surely
the benevolent would extend their aid towards it.
The Rev. Dr. Iliff, Mr. Dunlevie, and other gentlemen
spoke highly in favour of the Institution.
Thanks were voted to the Chairman and the meeting
separated.

DREADFUL COAL-PIT EXPLOSION,—We stop the press
to aunounce a dreadful explosion of fire-damp, which took
place in Duke Pit, Whitehaven, on Thursday afternoon,
between 3 and 4 o'clock. The whole of the men in the
pit at the time, 11 in number, were killed. There were
also 11 horses killed.—Carlisle Journal.

UNCLAIMED DIVIDENDS.—It appears that the late
disclosures at the Mansion-house, relative to fraudulent
transfers of stock, have induced the authorities at the
bank to withhold all information for the present on the
subject of unclaimed dividends. Alterations are likely to
take place in the forma heretofore gone through when
such claims bays been urged and allowed.

Mus. Grz.moon.—Thetrial of Mr'. Gilmour for the
murder of her husband commenced at Edinburgh on Fri-
day, and was expected to occupy the whole of Saturday.
The Edinburgh papers of Saturday contain no portion of
the evidence, as the court desired that no part of the pro-
ceedings should be published until the conclusion of the
trial. It was very generally expected that the verdict
would be one of not proven.
DEATH OF MR. FITZWILLIAM, THE COMEDIAN.—
Charles Fitzwilliam, in the 43d year of his age, died on
Sunday last, the 14th, at one o'clock, at his residence in
Charles-street, Middlesex Hospital. His disease was
consumption, under which he had been gradually sinking
for several months, accelerated by a depression of'spirits.
Mr. Fitzwilliam was educated for a Roman Catholic
priest, but afterwards commenced his career upon the
stage. He was a brother of Mr. Edward Fitzwilliam,
the vocalist. _ _

OPPOSITION TO THE ANTI-CORN-LA.W ',EAGLE IN
BUCKS.—A document, containing the signatures of 87
highly respectable tenant-farmers of the town of Bucking-
ham and its vicinity has just been issued, risr
ugsting the
attendance of all farmers, traliesmen, and ot s desirous
of upholding the agricultural interest, at a public meeting
to be held at the Town Hall, .Buckingham, on Saturday
next, for the purpose of adopting such measures as may
be thought advisable " to counteract the ruinous pro-
ceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law League."
THE ROYAL BUCK HOUNDS.—Her Majesty's stag
hounds had one of the most severe and lengthened runs
this season on Monday last, the fixture being at Maiden-
head, at which upwards of 200 were present. The little
deer Sweep was uncarted at Maidenhead Thicket, and was
taken within a mile of Stokenchurch, in Oxfordshire,
after a thin hours run, over upwards:of 30 miles of a hilly
and extremely heavy line of country. The deer swam
across the Thames, nearly opposite to Henley, and upon
the hounds being.laid on, upon the opposite shore, the
pace up to the finish was tremendous. Only twelve out of
the numerous field at the meet were up at the take, in-
eluding
Mr. Davis (the huntsman, who had two fresh
horses during the run,) and a sprinkling of the right sort,
who were well mounted. The field was pretty well weeded
before the deer crossed the water at Henley. The distance
from Stokenchurch to the kennel (where the hounds arrived
the same evening,) iS betrbeen 20 and 30 miles.