Hugh Berchmans Devine: surgical visionary and great Australian.
It is now 75 years since a letter signed by Sir George Syme, Hamilton Russell and Hugh Devine was sent to leading surgeons in Australia and New Zealand inviting them to form an Australasian Association of Surgeons, a body dedicated to improving the standard of surgery as practised in the two countries. This letter proved to be the catalyst that led to the formation of what eventually became the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, after a previous attempt to form such an Association in 1920 by Professor Louis Barnett had failed. It was Hugh Devine, returning from America in 1925, who played a leading role in the foundation of the College and it is not inappropriate in the year 2000, 75 years after the letter was drafted, to reappraise the life and achievements of this great Australian surgeon.
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University of Melbourne Department of Surgery, St Vincent's Hospital, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia. tonilp@clyde.its.unimelb.edu.au
D001315:Australia; D013502:General Surgery / Q000266:history*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000266:history