Page:British Medical Journal, 1924 March 1 pp409-410.djvu/1

1, 1924 one which, to quote Dick Swiveller's metaphor, "never moulted a feather" throughout the long years which were to follow. On one point, however, our tastes were completely divergent, for he revelled in council and committee meetings, making at many of them an excellent and resourceful chairman, whereas I have never regarded them as things to be desired.

In our young days we went together to several meetings of the British Medical Association, and when he found himself free, if only for a short time, from professional trammels he displayed the same keenness and energetic ardour in the enjoyment of a holiday as that which he always brought to bear upon his work. At that time—as, indeed, throughout the whole of his life—he thoroughly appreciated a humorous situation, and I vividly recall the almost boyish glee in which he indulged when he had on one occasion emerged triumphantly from an animated discussion with the landlady of a seaside lodging house, at whose establishment he and I had suffered severely from the onslaughts of the "Pulex britaninicus." During the period of his studentship he displayed some prowess as an athlete, and he was included in the almost invincible football team which represented St. Mary's Hospital in the days of George Field and Edmund Owen. He was very successful as a teacher, for he early recognized that as a means of imparting knowledge practical demonstrations have a far greater value than academic lectures, and it was in the out-patient room that his most important work was accomplished. Morris was well equipped as a speaker, for, in addition to an extensive vocabulary, he possessed a fine voice and exceptional elocutionary powers, which he used to the best advantage. Had his wish to become a politician been realized he would, I think, have had a very successful career, for he was an excellent administrator, and, as he once laughingly assured me, he was able, given a sufficient knowledge of his subject, to speak without exhaustion for an almost unlimited time. Few members of our profession have led a more active or useful life, for he was always in the forefront of any movement which gave promise of benefit to the community; and he was in a large degree cosmopolitan, for he was ready at one and the same time to distribute his best energies in such varied directions as tuberculosis, venereal disease, and cremation. Morris was ever ready to make grateful acknowledgment that his success in life was due in a great measure to his fortunate domestic surroundings, and those of us who were present at their golden wedding in 1922 hoped that for his devoted wife and himself there might be at least another decade of united happiness still on ahead.... It was not to be; and we can only tender to her and to her sorrowing children the assurance of our most sincere sympathy.

ROBERT GUTHRIE POOLE LANSDOWN, M.D., B.S., Consulting Surgeon to the Bristol General Hospital. have to record with much regret the death of Mr. R. G. P. Lansdown, which occurred suddenly at his residence in Clifton on February 17th, at the age of 60. Robert Guthrie Poole Lansdown was born in Bristol and received his education at Clifton College and Epsom College, at University College, Bristol, and at Guy's Hospital and Newcastle-on-Tyne. In 1889 he obtained the diplomas of M.R.C.S.Eng., L.R.C.P.Lond., and graduated M.B., B.S. at the University of Durham, proceeding M.D. in 1891. At Guy's he held the resident appointments of house-surgeon and resident obstetric officer. He settled to practise in Bristol in 1891, and was shortly afterwards elected assistant surgeon to the Bristol General Hospital, to which institution his father and grandfather had been honorary surgeons. In 1896 he was elected full surgeon. He held the post of lecturer in practical surgery at University College, Bristol, and later at the University of Bristol, where he was also clinical lecturer in surgery, and had been chairman of the Medical Board. He had represented the Bristol General Hospital on the Court of the University.

In the autumn of 1923 Mr. Lansdown resigned from the active staff of the General Hospital, where he was then senior surgeon and dean, and was elected honorary consulting surgeon. In his earlier days he had been surgeon captain in the Gloucestershire Garrison Artillery Volunteers, and during the war he served on the staff of the 2nd Southern General Hospital, Bristol, with the rank of major, R.A.M. C. (T.F.). For twenty-four years he had been honorary surgeon to the Clergy Daughters' School, Bristol, and for some years had been medical officer to the Bristol postal staff. He was a governor of the Queen Victoria Jubilee Convalescent Home and took a keen interest in that institution. In 1883 he received the bronze medal of the Royal Humane Society for the gallant rescue of a lady from drowning at Torquay.

Mr. Lansdown was an excellent surgeon whose opinion was highly valued by his professional brethren. He was a first-rate teacher, as many generations of students in Bristol can testify. He worked indefatigably at the 2nd Southern General Hospital during the war, yet always managed to put in his full time at his civil hospital duties. He was an active member of the British Medical Association, having been a member of the council of the Bath and Bristol Branch from 1903 to 1906, and president of the Branch from 1915 to 1918. His father, the late Dr. Francis Poole Lansdown, had been president of this Branch in 1891. Mr. Lansdown was president of the Bristol Medico-Chirurgical Society in 1918-19. He was an enthusiastic amateur photographer, and had been president of the Bristol and West of England Amateur Photographic Association. Only two days before his death he delivered a lecture on Switzerland, illustrated with lantern slides from his own photographs. As an amateur actor he achieved great distinction in character parts; he could recite a dialect story inimitably, and could sing a good song. For many years he sang in the choir of St. Paul's Church, Clifton. Robert Lansdown was a loyal and considerate colleague and an entertaining companion gifted with a rich sense of humour. He knew the secret of keeping all his friends and made no enemies. He leaves a widow, a son (Dr. R. B. P. Lansdown, who is in practice at Coulsdon), and a daughter. 

ALEXANDER CHARLES O'SULLIVAN, M.B., B.C., Professor of Pathology, Trinity College, Dublin. W record with much regret the death, on February 18th, of Dr. Alexander Charles O'Sullivan, Professor of Pathology in the University of Dublin and Senior Fellow of Trinity College, at his residence, Ailesbury Road, Dublin, after an illness of only a few days. He was born in the county of Cork about sixty-six years ago, the son of the Rev. Denis O'Sullivan, Rector of Macroom. From Tipperary Grammar School he went to Trinity College, Dublin, and having studied classics in his freshman years he suddenly turned to mathematics, and obtained a scholarship in that subject in 1879. In 1881 he was first senior moderator in mathematics and also in ethics and logic. It is interesting to recall that the first mathematical scholar in 1879 was Dr. Bernard, the present Provost of Trinity College, and the senior classical scholar was Professor J. B. Bury, the distinguished historian. Dr. Bernard obtained his Fellowship in 1884, Dr. Bury in 1885, and Dr. O'Sullivan in 1886. Having taken his Fellowship, Dr. O'Sullivan, under the influence and advice of the late Professor Samuel Haughton, turned to the study of medicine, and took his M.B., B.Ch., B.A.O. degrees in 1894. He went to Vienna for a special course of bacteriology, and returning to Dublin in 1895 was appointed lecturer in pathology in Trinity College. When the chair of pathology was founded he was again reappointed as lecturer, and a couple of years ago he was confirmed in that position as professor. Dr. O'Sullivan may be regarded as the father of the modern school of Dublin physicians. In the autumn of 1915 he volunteered for service and went out as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps to Malta, where his work in malaria and dysentery obtained widespread recognition. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and at the close of the war he was placed in charge of the Central Military Laboratory for Ireland. Dr. O'Sullivan held examinerships in the Universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, and Belfast, and was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, for which he wrote 