In this series, we have passed beyond the earlier history of the Brooklyn city court, and now have in its continuance to do with those representative members whose individual careers represent more fully its history than any statistical matter, dates or other figures could possibly do.

Judge Reynolds occupies a very conspicuous part in the history of this court, indeed unique in the extent of his occupancy of the position and it becomes a pleasure as well as a duty to chronicle the various steps which led the young lawyer to the high office which he filled with distinction to himself and his constituents.

George G. Reynolds was born in Amenia, a small town in Dutchess county, N. Y., on the seventh day of February, 1821. The father of the subject of our sketch was of an old Rhode Island family; he was George Reynolds, and his ancestry could be traced from its English origin far beyond the time when he began his career as a farmer in Dutchess county. He was an American patriot and volunteered his services to his country during the war of 1812, when he was

stationed in Brooklyn, at Fort Greene. His mother was Abagail, a daughter of Jonathan Pennoyer, of Amenia, who was a direct descendent of the sturdy old Hollander, Jacob Powers. Several generations of the Reynolds family were identifled with the agricultural growth of the section in which they resided, and his early life was much the same as that of other boys of his age and generation-he was a farmer's boy, purely and simply, doing his part of the necessary work about his rural home. He early developed an inclination for study, which met with the approval and encouragement of his parents, as they were in such comfortable circumstances as enabled him to follow the bent of his inclinations, and after a preparatory course at the Amenia Seminary, he passed a successful examination and was admitted into the sophomore class of Wesleyan University, at Middletown, Conn. He was graduated from that institution in 1841, standing well in his class and receiving the degree of B. A. The following year he read law in Poughkeepsie, but shortly after removed to Brooklyn and continued his studies.

there for two years under the able supervision of no less a tutor than the late Judge Dykeman.

His studies completed, he was admitted to practice in 1844, and immediately took an active part in his chosen profession in Brooklyn.. About a year subsequent to this he was induced to remove to Ulster county, in this State, and there continued in practice for upwards of six years. He became associated with the late Judge Gilbert Dean, of Poughkeepsie, as a partner in 1851. He remained connected with this gentleman until 1854, during which time the judge was representative in Congress. (In later years he became a judge of the Supreme Court.) After the dissolution of this firm, Mr. Reynolds came back to Brooklyn and became a partner of the then district attorney of Kings county, Richard C. Underhill. His advancement from this time was rapid; very rapid, indeed, and in a comparatively short space of time, he not only secured an extensive practice, but also an acknowledged high position at the bar.

From almost the inception of the Republican party, he was one of its warm adherents, and in recognition of his efforts and services in its behalf, he was tendered the nomination in 1860, of judge of the city court of Brooklyn, and in spite of the fact that the city is undeniably a Democratic one, his majority was over five thousand votes. He was succeeded by Judge Thompson, in 1867, at the ex

piration of his term of six years, and again took up the private practice of the law, until 1870, after the death of the renowned Granville T. Jenks (then of the firm of Jenks & Ward) Judge Reynolds joined his partner, Frederick A. Ward, esq., and this connection was maintained until the latter part of 1872. Judge Reynolds had, prior to Mr. Jenks' death, frequently met him in court as the advocate of the opposing party, and, although their contests had frequently been marked by those exchanges of remarks usual in legal dissertations between counsel, this did not prevent a genuine and mutual friendship being formed. In 1872, in the campaign led for the liberal Republicans, and Democrats by Horace Greeley, he became an adherent of that movement, and was nominated for re-election, the term having been changed just previously to fourteen years with the reorganization of the court. He was elected by a handsome majority, running many votes ahead of the ticket.

The position filled by the city court is not, as might be inferred from the name, one of simple municipal jurisdiction, for it in fact ranks in importance with the Supreme Court. Both in the special, general, and trial terms, Judge Reynolds gave thorough satisfaction during his entire term of office, to both the members of the bar and the public. His abilities were particularly marked in the celebrated Tilton-Beecher case; in which the

opinions of Judge Neilson and Judge Reynolds, in reference to the motion to compel the plaintiff to furnish the defendant with a bill of particulars, citing the circumstances upon which the plaintiff relied to make out his case, were sustained in the court of final jurisdiction. The circumstances attending this decision, which finally terminated the contest, are lengthy for the scope of a magazine article, but are to be found at length in the various reports of that famous trial, and are well worthy of attention for the clear and learned views of the legal representative therein expressed.

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Many other important decisions. were rendered by Judge Reynolds during his long and honorable incumbency of the judicial position, but it must suffice to say that they were invariably distinguished for their strength, sound judgment and legal research and in practice since his retirement from the bench, he has fully sustained his high reputation for ingenious, eloquent and effiective ad

vocacy.

Learned in the law, refined, sound and clear in his reasoning, a wise counsellor, and an eminently successful advocate, his services are sought by the highest class of clients in the most difficult and important causes.

He was a candidate of the Republican party in 1859, for justice of the Supreme Court, in the Second Judicial District. This is very strongly Democratic, however, and although

he received a very large vote, he was not elected.

In church and educational work, Judge Reynolds has always taken a prominent part. He is a regular attendant and member of the Summerfield M. E. Church of Brooklyn, and has been president of the board of trustees for about ten years.

"Lay delegation" was introduced in the general conference of the M. E. Church in 1872, and Judge Reynolds was elected to represent the Eastern Conference of New York, being one of the two delegates, and has been reelected at each election since then. He has been trustee of the Adelphi Academy and director of the Brooklyn Trust Company, the Young Mens' Christian Association, of Brooklyn, and is a member of the board of managers of the American Bible Society. He is a member of the Alumni Association of Wesleyan University, and represents that body in the board of trustees. He received from the university the degree of LL.D. in 1871.

Personally, Judge Reynolds is a dignified, cultivated gentleman, yet withal genial and approachable, and is esteemed by a wide circle of friends, among whom he is recognized as a man of absolute integrity and a representative and valuable. citizen.

His wife, to whom he was married in 1846, was Miss Harriet Townsend, of Milton, Ulster county, N. Y., a daughter of Jacob P. Townsend, Esq.

SOME months since, a young Hungarian woman, whose home is at Streator, Ill., was brought by her friends to the office of a Chicago oculist for treatment. In her early childhood-when she was but three months old, in fact she had become totally blind, as a result of having had the smallpox. A careful examination of the woman's eyes developed the fact that in one only was there even a remnant of visual power, and this was nothing more than the perception of light; this is to say, the ability to distinguish between light and darkness.

The physician, therefore, informed his patient that her case was practically hopeless, but that an operation for the relief of such cases had been devised and attempted by German oculists, with a slight degree of encouragement, and that, as far as known at that time, it had not been successfully performed in America. Grasping at this single ray of hope

-the only straw floating upon the sea of blindness-the patient and her friends insisted that the oculist should undertake the operation of which he had made mention.

He finally consented, and, the patient being assigned to a bed in the Emergency Hospital, preparations were made for a corneal transplantation from a rabbit's to the human eye.

Not being able readily to obtain the instrument invented for this purpose by the eminent German oculist and scientist, Von Hippel, the Chicago oculist had an instrument made after his own design, and with this he cut through and removed a small portion of the cornea of the eye still retaining perception of light. With the same instrument, a corneal button of the same size was taken from the eye of a one-year-old live rabbit and transferred to the eye of the patient.

Three weeks after the performance