find his way about;
indeed, he met with one or two minor accidents on account of not
being able to see. It then appeared to me he had much to gain and
very little to lose by an operation, and further, he was in much
better health than he had been for some time. I pointed out to him
that there was a risk and that if the operation failed he would be
totally blind, but that there were very long odds in his favour,
and that I was willing to take the risk if he was. He asked one
question: 'If you were in my place would you have it done?' I said
certainly I would. That quite decided him and all that remained to
be done was to fix a time. General Booth at that date had some work
which he wanted to finish, and eventually the date for operation
was fixed for May 23rd. On that day I operated. I did a simple
extraction under cocaine.

"Nothing could have been more satisfactory, as will be seen from
the notes, and the bulletin sent to the papers was, 'The operation
was entirely successful; the ultimate result depends on The
General's recuperative power.' When I covered the eye and bandaged
it I thought that success was certain, and was confirmed in that
opinion on the following morning when I lifted up the dressing and
found all was well, and that the patient, when he partly opened the
eye, could see. On the third day Dr. Milne, who was in attendance,
at once saw that mischief had occurred, and the sequence of events
I have narrated. How the eye became infected I am unable to say. I
used every precaution; as I told the patient afterwards, the only
omission I could think of was that I had not boiled or roasted
myself.... I looked carefully for these before each operation. I
regret two things in the case: (1) that the last operation was not
done two or three months before when General Booth was in better
health; (2) that it was not postponed for another month, in which
case I should not have done it, for looking back on the whole
history I feel certain that he was not in his best condition on May
23rd when the operation was performed."

The General's own response when he was gently informed that there was
no hope of his seeing objects any more was:--

"Well, the Lord's Will be done. If it is to be so I have but to bow
my head and accept it."

He subsequently rem