tention, as illustrating the manner in which this charity accomplishes most good, by encouraging poor patients to seek medical aid in the very commencement of their diseases, before they have assumed a dangerous character. A large number of medical men have visited the institution during the past two years, and some have spent much time in observing the treatment of cases. Clinical lectures have been given to the students of the medical colleges, and every facility for acquiring correct knowledge of the principles and practice of ophthalmic and aural surgery has been afforded to all who have attended the clinics. It is the earnest wish of the surgeons to extend, more and more, to physicans and medical students, the advantages arising from witnessing the treatment of a large number of patients. This two-fold purpose of making the infirmary a charity for the poor and a school of ophthalmology and otology, was attained during the last year, better than in any previous period, since the extension of the building on Peoria street, which was completed and occupied in October, 1877, and furnished the desired accommodations for the surgeons to thoroughly systematize and divide their work in the dispensary. In 1877, the medical board sustained a severe loss by the death of J. W. Freer, M. D., who had been a consulting surgeon to the infirmary since its foundation. He had always shown a warm interest in the welfare of the institution and been a true and noble friend of his colleagues in the medical board. The surgeons take great pleasure in acknowledging the excellent service rendered by the consulting physician and microscopist of the infirmary. He has ever been ready to visit, day or night, those patients in the institution who from time to time have suffered illness not connected with diseases of the eye or ear. As microscopist he has also rendered valuable aid to the surgeons, by his microscopic examinations of tumors and other growths in the regions of the eye. The dispensary has, as heretofore, been open from two to half past three o'clock, for the reception of eye patients every afternoon (except Sunday), and for the reception of ear patients on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. |