John Cunningham Saunders
John Cunningham Saunders, M.D. was an English surgeon and oculist, best known for his pioneering work on the surgery of cataracts. He founded the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, now known as Moorfields Eye Hospital.
Origins
He was born on 10 October 1773 at Huish, Devon, England, the second son of John Cunningham Saunders, Esquire, of Lovistone in the parish of Huish, by his wife Jane. The mural monument of John Cunningham Saunders, Senior, survives in the Church of St James the Less, Huish, displaying the arms of Saunders impaling those of his wife. The will of an earlier John Cunningham Saunders "Gentleman of Great Torrington, Devon", near Huish, was proved on 14 April 1744. These are a differenced version of the arms of William Saunders of Charlwood in Surrey, who married Joan Carew, one of the daughters and co-heiresses of the prominent Thomas Carew of Beddington in Surrey. His great-grandson was Sir Thomas Sanders .Career
In 1805, "Out of compassion for the pitiful state of many soldiers returning from the Egyptian campaign afflicted with military ophthalmoplegia and trachoma infections", he founded the "London Dispensary for Curing Diseases of the Eye and Ear", a famous teaching institution, later known variously as the "Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital", the "London Eye Infirmary", today known as Moorfields Eye Hospital, of which Saunders remained the director from its founding in 1805 until he died in 1810.In 1809, he became one of the first people in England to use belladonna for its mydriatic properties to facilitate cataract extraction.