OBITUARY

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21972, 22 December 1936, Page 6

OBITUARY

SIR JOHN BLAND-SUTTON

(U.SITKD I'REHH ASSOCIATION—COPYRIGHT.) (Received December 21, 7.50 p.m.) LONDON, December 20. The death has occurred of Sir John Bland-Sutton, the eminent surgeon. Sir John Bland-Sutton, the great British surgeon, who was connected with the Middlesex Hospital, London, for more than half a century, was born at Enfield in 1855. He had very sensitive hands, which were the secret of his success as a surgeon. His career was self-made, for on leaving school he had to gain his living as a teacher, and it was in that way that he earned sufficient to pay the fees for his first course of medical lectures. The only financial assistance he received from his father was a small sum as a reward for his success in Greek in the arts examination, nv 1878 he gave up teaching and entered the Middlesex Hospital, keeping himself by working as a demonstrator in the dissecting room and by coaching. At that time the use of anaesthetics was still in a primitive stage, and, although the Middlesex was one of the most progressive hospitals, the senior surgeon* under whom Sir John Bland-Sutton was trained laughed at antiseptic precautions, and told the students that the chief difference between the old methods and the new was merely that formerly surgeons washed their hands after an operation, and under the new Ideas they washed them before. Erysipelas after operations was then a scourge in all hospitals. In 1886 Sir John Bland-Sutton was appointed Erasmus Wilson lecturer and Hunterian professor to the Royal College of Surgeons. Since then he has held many distinguished medical offices and has exercised his unrivalled skill as a surgeon in almost all parts of the world. In 1912 he was knighted. During the World War he was kept actively engaged as an officer of the Royal Army Medical Corps. In 1925 he was created a baronet and honorary .degrees have been conferred on him bv the Universities of, Aberdeen. St. Andrews. Glasgow, and Birmingham. A man of wide.interests, particularly in' literature, he was an excellent speaker. He wrote much on medical subjects and also a volume of memoirs. CENTENARIAN'S DEATH (TRUSS ASSOCIATION rtLCORAH.) DUNEDIN. December 21. • Mr George Taylor, a naval veteran who lived in the reigns of six Sovereigns, died yesterday, aged 102. He joined the Navy at the age of 14 and served for eight years in China waters. He came to New Zealand in 1879. and had Jived at Gore for the last 40 years.