518 TUBERCLE' [August, 1936

Ghon was greatly appreciated, not only by his students at Prague, but by physicians from all parts of the world who came to learn from him at his Institute. As a teacher, as a scientist and as a man, he will not soon be forgotten;

HENHY PHILBRICK NELSON.

June 14, 1936.

TIlE tragic death of this brilliant young surgeon in the very zenith of his powers took place, as our readers will know, from a virulent streptococcal infection of the left index fitiger during the course of his work, which, despite amputation of the arm above the elbow, resulted in a genemlised infection from which he died, little more than a month after the original injury.

Born in New Zealand in 1901, Nelson was educated at Harrow and Cambridge, taking an honours degree in the Natural Science Tripos. Passing on to St. Bartholomew's, he qualified in 1926, and became house surgeon to Mr. McAdam Eccles and Mr. Girling Ball. Later on he became demonstrator of anatomy to Prof. H. Woollard, carrying out while holding this post some original work on the tracheo-bronchial lymph-glands. He took his l!'.R.C.S. in 1929, and it 'Yas during this same year that as resident medical officer at Queen .Mary's IIospital, Roehampton, he tirst became interested in thoracic surgery, largely in connection with the cases of chronic empyema under Mr. J. E. H. Roberts. The following year, \vhile holding the posts of registrar to the Royal National Orthop:.edic IIospital and clinical assistant at St. Peter's Hospital for Stone, be published among other papers a study in radiotherapy of the chest. In 1931 he was appointed Instructor in Surgery in the Thoracic Surgical Unit of Dr. John Alexander, at the University of:hlichigan Hospital, Ann Arbor, a surgical scholarship of the Association

of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland enabling him to take up this appointment. On his return to England in 1932 he became chief assistant to Mr. Roberts at St. Bartho­lomew's IIospital and clinical assistant at the Brompton Hospital for Consump­tion. The same year, holding the Ernest Hart lIIemorial Scholarship of the British Medical Association, he did pioneer work on postural drainage of the lungs in bronchiectasis and lung abscess. In 1933 he was appointed assistant surgeon at Brompton and consulting thoracic surgeon to the L.C.C., and in 1\larch of this year his great ambition-that of attachment to the honorary staff of one of the great teaching hospitals-was attained when the London Hospital elected him assistant surgeon.

Among other legacies with which Nelsou's name will always be :l.ssociated is the foundation of the surgical unit at Papworth Village Settlement, another being the establishment of a clinic of thoracic surgery at St. Andrew's Hospital, Bow, under the L.C.C. Nelson's contributions to medical litera­ture were numerous and of permanent value, and no one with any qualifica­tions to judge would dissent from Dr. John Alexander's testimony to him as long ago as 1932, after his return from the United States: ... It is my opinion that 1\lr. Nelson's training and experience entitle him to be considered one of a really very small group of the most able thoracic surgeons in any country to·day." Nelson had reached a distinguished positiou in the surgical world, and his death leaves a gap in the ranks of chest surgeons which it will indeed be hard to fill.

His loss to a wide circle of colleagues and friends is irreparable. An extra­ordinary zest for hard work, an in­infectious enthusiasm in all that he undertook, and. a high courage in' surmounting what often seemed to be insuperable difficulties, ma.de him an inspiration to everybody with whom he came in contact.