Eye Hospital

Mrs. Aida de Acosta Root, wife of Wren Root, Manhattan Traction magnate and nephew of Lawyer Elihu Root, was going blind. Across Europe she hurried, from hospital to hospital, received little help, took ship, came to the U. S., to Washington, D. C, asked for an appointment with Dr. William Holland Wilmer, famed eye specialist. Said Dr. Wilmer's secretary: "You can have an appointment in six weeks."

"I am going blind," said Mrs. Root. "I must see him now."

Dr. Wilmer operated twice on her eyes, saved the sight of one. She learned that he had just paid, out of his own funds, a deficit of $6,000 incurred by his hospital, that he wanted to work at certain researches but lacked the time, the money. Forthwith she incorporated an endowment fund, called it the Wilmer Foundation, enlisted the help of prominent philanthropists. Money came rapidly. The Rockefeller Board of Education offered, if $1,500,000 could be raised, to add another $1,500,000 for the establishment of a great hospital for eye diseases, under Dr. Wilmer's direction, in conjunction with the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

Last week, the fund was completed. Rich men, poor men, beggar men, followers of miscellaneous professions, clinked their money in the same pot.

From Earl Grey, British statesman, a former patient of Dr. Wilmer's, a check; from J. P. Morgan, $100,000; from George F. Baker and George F. Baker Jr., $100,000; from Frank Munsey, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Julius Rosenwald, Joseph E. Widener, Felix M. Warburg, Samuel Sachs, Benjamin Stern, Mrs. Henry R. Rea, James Speyer and other contributors, came generous gifts.

The hospital, it is planned, will open in September. It will have 40 free beds, extensive laboratory resources.