Albany Eye and Ear Infirmary

Knowing what we now know about what doctors didn’t know in the mid-19th century, it’s easy to imagine the Albany Eye and Ear Infirmary of 1858 as a chamber of horrors that could have involved a combination of bloodletting and mercury poisoning. And pneumatic extraction. “Dr. Gilbert’s celebrated Combination Pneumatic Extractor and Ear Syringe, for the permanent cure of deafness, sent to any part of the world.” Still, if you were in need of their services, perhaps an artificial eye or ear drum inserted, and you were down on your luck, Drs. Gilbert and Graves were open to charity cases six hours a week. Lydius Street was the stretch of what is now Madison Avenue between the river and Pearl Street.