– The History of the General Surgical Department –

Recently, Professor S.R. Banerjee Jesudason, former Head of the Department of General Surgery at CMC, released the book on the history of the Department of General Surgery. This is a revised version of an earlier publication ? ?History of the Department of General surgery? published in 2010, to coincide with the Centenary celebrations of CMC. The late Professor L.B.M Joseph, who is well known to us, was a co author of the first version along with Dr. Banerjee.

The book highlights the fact that the Department of General Surgery developed as an integral part of CMC, along with allied departments ? Anaesthesia, Pathology, Surgical Nursing etc. Gradually, all the specialty surgical departments branched off as independent entities. The department did not grow in isolation, but very much as a part of the entire institution and General Surgery, today, enjoys the status of Mother of all Surgical Specialties.

Australia has made great contributions to the Department of surgery. We are all aware of the roles played by the three well known surgeons who have worked at CMC for many years ? late Dr.  Edward Gault, who established the surgical pathology department at CMC, Dr, Frank Garlick from Brisbane and Dr, Geoff Shead from Sydney.

Australia also was the training ground for many of the CMC surgeons who worked in teaching hospitals, mainly in Adelaide but also in Melbourne to further their knowledge. Drs, L.B.M Joseph, J.O.Devadata, Prakash Khanduri, Booshanam Moses. George Mathews ? to name a few.

The book will be available at Alumni Office, ELS and the Department of General Surgery. The cost per copy is Rs.250/00. We are making arrangements to get copies of this book sent over in bulk to Australia and when we obtain them, we will make it available to you.