LAGRANGE, Félix (1857-1928). French ophthalmologist, profess - Lot 89

LAGRANGE, Félix (1857-1928). French ophthalmologist, professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Bordeaux, renowned specialist in eye diseases and wartime eye injuries. Set includes a signed autograph card and a typewritten poem entitled Aux aveugles de la Guerre, February 2, 1917. The autograph card, on headed paper with the motto "Ad Lucem", is addressed to a fellow doctor. In it, Lagrange warmly thanks his correspondent for sending him a book written with the medical inspector Vincent: "I have just read this fine study [...] and I am most sincerely pleased with it." He underlines the scientific and human interest of this publication devoted to war injuries and damage. Attached to the letter is a 1-page folio typewritten poem entitled Aux aveugles de la Guerre, dedicated to Eugène Brieux. This moving text celebrates the courage of soldiers who became blind during the First World War: "Be proud and cheerful, and carry your hearts high, Blind men whose eyes died for the Fatherland." The poem develops a profoundly humanist and patriotic vision of the blindness of the war-wounded, extolling their heroism and moral strength. A fine blend of medicine, patriotic literature and the history of the Great War, particularly representative of the moral commitment of ophthalmologists to the eye injuries of the 1914-1918 conflict. Minor creasing and foxing; good overall condition.