UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19316, 31 October 1924, Page 6

UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO.

PROFESSOR OF SURGERY. DR. F. GORDON BELL APPOINTED. At a special meeting of the University Council yesterday afternoon Dr F. Gordon Bell was appointed Professor of Surgery at the Otago University. Dr Bell is a New Zealander by birth, and received his early education at the Marlborough College. Ho' is a graduate of Edinburgh University, and a Fellow of th.o Royal College of Surgooos of England, and recently passed the examination f for the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He at present holds the posts of tutor in clinical surgery, Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and of assistant in the department of systematic surgery, Edinburgh University. He graduated as Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery at Edinburgh University in 1910. and was awarded the Ettlea Scholarship as the most distinguished graduate of the year. He was medallist on numerous occasions in various classes, in- • eluding systematic surgery, and was twice prizeman in the classos of clinical surgery in the Royal Infirmary. Hq also gained .the Crierscn Bursary in anatomy and physiology, and the Vans Duniop Scholarship in anatomy—one of the most coveted pnV.es offered by the University. He graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1913, and for his thesis, embodying the results of an original research on the development and histology of the occipital region of the brain, was awarded th© Uoodsir Memorial Fellowship for the best anatomical and physiological thesis submitted. He passed the examination for the London Coiiioint Qualification (M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond.) in 1913, and became a Follow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England in the same year. In 1912 he was appointed house surgeon to Professor Alexis Thomson in the Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh, and later, for successive periods of six months, served as resident surgical officer to the Liverpool Stanley and to tho Salford Royal Hospitals. In both those latter posts, as senior resident, he had the opportunity of performing a considerable amount of major operative surgery, and in addition to the general surgical work was resident in charge of the gynjecologicai and children's wards. Ho served in the R.A.M.C for four ye***. For nearly the whole of that period he was on active service with the 8.E.F., France, first as surgical specialist, to a base hospital and for the last three yoars of the war as surgical specialist to a casualty clearing station. For his work in this latter capacity he was awarded the Military Cross in the Now Yoar's honours of 1917, and was again mentioned in despatches in March, 1919. The responsible post of soecialist to the highly developed casualty clearing station of the latter period of the war involved the surgical control of a large hospital, and the performance of a great many operations on the abdominal, thoracic, and cranial cavities. I As clinicl tutor in "wie Royal Infirmary during the past,four years he had amplo opportunity of acquiring "experience in the clinical instruction of students. During this post-war period the clinical classes were unusually large, entailing division into sections, and the bedside instruction was largely divided among the professor, the assistant surgeon, and tho tutor. As assistant in the department of systematic surgery Dr Bell has taken his share oT the routine practical instruction and examination work. Li addition, he has occasionally acted for the lecturer in surgical pathology, and has lectured on special subjects for ,fche professor. For the last two years he has acted as one of the examiners in practical surgery for the final examination. CHAIR OF ECONOMICS Tho council decided to defer consideration of appointing anyone to the chair of economics until it had received further advice from tho High Commissioner.