The Eye Hospital was originated in 1823, and the first patients were received in April, 1824, at the hospital in Cannon Street.  Some thirty years afterwards the institution was removed to Steelhouse Lane, and in 1862 to Temple Row, Dee’s Royal Hotel being taken and remodelled for the purpose at a cost of about L8,300.  In 1881 the number of patients treated was 12,523; in 1882, 13,448 of whom 768 were in-patients, making a total of over a quarter of a million since the commencement of the charity.  Admission by subscriber’s ticket.  Originally an hotel, the building is dilapidated and very unsuitable to the requirements of the hospital, the space for attendants and patients being most inadequate.  This has been more and more evident for years past, and the erection of a new building became an absolute necessity.  The governors, therefore, have taken a plot of land at the corner of Edmund Street and Church Street, upon a lease from the Colmore family for 99 years, and hereon is being built a commodious and handsome new hospital, from carefully arranged plans suitable to the peculiar necessities of an institution of this nature.  The estimated cost of the new building is put at L20,000, of which only about L8,000 has yet been subscribed (L5,000 of it being from a single donor).  In such a town as Birmingham, and indeed in such a district as surrounds us, an institution like the Birmingham and Midland Eye Hospital is not only useful, but positively indispensable, and as there are no restrictions as to distance or place of abode in the matter of patients, the appeal made for the necessary building funds should meet with a quick and generous response, not only from a few large-hearted contributors, whose names are household words, but also from the many thousands who have knowledge directly or indirectly of the vast benefit this hospital has conferred upon those stricken by disease or accident—­to that which is the most precious of all our senses.  It is intended that the hospital should be a model to the whole kingdom of what such an institution ought to be; the latest and best of modern appliances, both sanitary and surgical, will be introduced.  There will be in and out departments, completely isolated one from the other, though with a door of communication.  From sixty to seventy beds will be provided, special wards for a certain class of cases, adequate waiting-rooms for out-patients, and the necessary rooms for the officers and medical attendants, all being on an ample scale.

Fever Hospital.—­There was a Fever Hospital opened in March, 1828, but we have no note when it was closed, and possibly it may have been only a temporary institution, such as become necessary now and then even in these days of sanitary science.  For some years past fever patients requiring isolation have been treated in the Borough Hospital, but the Health Committee have lately purchased a plot of land in Lodge Road of about 4-1/2 acres, at a cost of L4,500,