Born at Exeter 28 December 1852, the fourth child and third son of Isaac Lang, corn and seed merchant, and Sarah Lindon Parnell, his wife. He was educated at the Moravian School, Lausanne, and entered the London Hospital on 1 October 1870. Here he was house surgeon, house physician, and demonstrator of anatomy and physiology, and came into close touch with James Edward Adams, whose clinical assistant he was. In 1881 he was elected ophthalmic surgeon to the Middlesex Hospital, on the resignation of George Critchett, and held office until 1914. From 1884 to 1912 he was surgeon, at first assistant surgeon, to the Royal London Ophthalmic Hospital, Moorfields, where he succeeded his former master, J E Adams, who had become totally blind. Lang retired from practice in 1927 but continued to live in Cavendish Square, for many years at No 22 but latterly at No 35, where he died on 13 July 1937. He married twice: (1) on 27 August 1879 Susan, daughter of W T Buckland of Auckland, New Zealand; and (2) Isabella Jane (d 1927), widow of A M Dunlop. By his first wife he had a son Basil Lang (1880-1928), FRCS, and a daughter, who survived him. Lang was a great clinical teacher, and a good operator in spite of marked tremor of his hands. He was amongst the first to recognize the importance of focal sepsis as a cause of chronic inflammatory disease of the eye, for instance that iritis which used to be thought of as rheumatic in origin was more often due to septic teeth. He had a mechanical mind and invented a speculum which guarded the lashes and kept them out of the field of operation, twin knives for the division of synechiae, a lachrymal syringe, a blunt dissector, and a scoop. He was, too, amongst the first to advocate an artificial globe in the capsule of Tenon after enucleation, as a means of preventing the deformity following shrinkage of the orbital tissues and so permitting good movement of the artificial eye. He was an original member of the Ophthalmological Society founded in 1880, was a vice-president and served as interim president in 1903 when Dr David Little died during his year of office. He was also a prominent member of the ophthalmological section of the Royal Society of Medicine, where he was president in 1916-17. Socially he was shy, hated speaking in public and went but little into society. Early in his professional life he lived at Chiswick and enjoyed the friendship of William Morris, buying the volumes of the Kelmscott press as they were issued. His collection of Kelmscott and Doves press books and bindings was sold by auction at Hodgson's, Chancery Lane, 28 February 1946. He showed his artistic taste later in life by presenting a charming statuette as a prize for the Middlesex Hospital golf club. Publication: *The methodical examination of the eye*. London, 1895. It was a favourite textbook for students; although it is labelled "Part 1" no second part was ever issued.