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In 1816 two young surgeons of very distinguished parentage, because they were dissatisfied with graduate medical training and because of the lack of knowledge of diseases of the eye in the United States, traveled to the London Infirmary, now the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital (Moorfields), to study eye disease. The London Eye Infirmary was founded in 1804 by John Cunningham Saunders "out of compassion for the pitiful state of many soldiers returning from the Egyptian campaign afflicted with military ophthalmoplegia and trachoma infections."3 The two surgeons were (1) Edward Delafield (Fig. 1), a 22-year-old graduate of Yale University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons and a medical resident at the New York Hospital; and (2) John Kearney Rodgers (Fig. 2) (the son of Dr. John R.B. Rodgers, a physician on the staff of the New York Hospital), a 23-year-old graduate of Princeton University and the College of Physicians and Surgeons and a surgical resident at New York Hospital. Remembering the blind of New York, "who are huddled together with paupers and criminals in the Alms House at Bellevue," Delafield and Rodgers resolved that on their return home they would found an infirmary, the primary objective being, in their own words, "to contribute toward the relief of the poor, who, by a diseased state of one of the most important organs of the human body, are deprived of the means of gaining a livelihood."3 Dr. Rodgers passed the examination and received a license of the Royal College of Surgeons before leaving London. When Delafield and Rodgers returned to New York City in 1818, they found that the two existing hospitals did not consider eye disease very important and that the poor received little or no eye care. They could not convince New York City officials of the need for an eye institution, and because they had no funds, they entered into private practice. As well as being ophthalmic surgeons, Edward Delafield was Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Professor of Diseases of Children at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and later was to become President of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and John Kearney Rodgers was a general and vascular surgeon at New York Hospital. This diversification reflects the nature and practice of medicine at that time. Specialization was not looked on with approval during the early 1800's. It was believed that physicians and surgeons should possess general knowledge and skills. |