This audience is gathered to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Section of Ophthalmology of the New York Academy of Medicine. These exercises are a response to an impulse that bids men halt in their accustomed activities and meditate on the past. It is not improper or immodest that the ancient foundation of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary participates in this golden jubilee. At the beginning of this half-century ophthalmology was a mere branch of general surgery, whereas now it is a highly developed specialty. Innumerable links bind the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary and the Section of Ophthalmology together. Surgeons of the infirmary helped to establish the section, and members of the staff have joined in its programs these many years. One of the surgeons on the staff of the infirmary, Dr. Gorham Bacon, is the sole survivor of those who founded