Bruce Mackenzie Dick

Surgery in Edinburgh has been fortunate to enjoy several golden ages. One of these was in the 1920s when David Wilkie {q.v.), John Fraser {q.v.), Henry Wade {q.v.) and J. M. Graham {q.v.) between them provided a stimulating, inspiring surgical milieu from which many talented surgeons emerged. Among these was Bruce Dick, who was to pioneer thoracic surgery in the west of Scotland, was to become an authority on surgical pathology and who generously bequeathed to the College a valuable X-ray teaching collection which bears his name in the College to this day.

Bruce Mackenzie Dick was born in Kendal, Westmorland, and studied medicine at Edinburgh University, graduating MB ChB with honours in 1922. He had an outstanding undergraduate academic career, winning the Beaney Prize in surgery and anatomy, the Buchanan Scholarship, the Grierson bursary in materia medica and the Allen Fellowship in Clinical Medicine and Surgery. Shortly after graduating, he took up a Fellowship in Surgery from the Rockefeller Foundation which allowed him to travel to St Louis, where he trained in thoracic surgery with Evarts Graham.

After taking the FRCSEd in 1925 he was appointed a lecturer in clinical surgery at the University of Edinburgh. Here he devoted himself to the emerging specialty of thoracic surgery. During this time, Sir John Fraser, Sir David Wilkie, Sir Henry Wade and J. M. Graham were at the height of their surgical prowess and in the stimulating environment which they created, Bruce Dick flourished. He developed an early interest in surgical pathology which was to remain with him throughout his life, and in which he was to become a national authority.

At the start of the Second World War he was seconded out of the services to set up a thoracic unit at Gleneagles Hotel, which had been set up as an emergency medical services hospital in 1939. This unit was transferred to Hairmyres in 1941 to become the first fully operational thoracic unit in Scotland.

In 1947 he treated a famous patient who became a significant benefactor of the unit. George Orwell (admitted under his real name Eric Blair) had apical tuberculosis with a cavity in the right lung. The standard treatment of the day - bed rest, artificial pneumorhorax and a right phrenic nerve crush - resulted in modest improvement. Bruce Dick was aware that Streptomycin, which had been discovered in the United States in 1944, had been used to treat tuberculosis in a few American patients with apparent success. Because of currency restrictions it was not possible to purchase the drug in the UK, at the time, but at Dick's suggestion Orwell arranged for his American publisher to pay for a supply. The purchase was approved by Aneurin Bevan, the Health Minister. Orwell was given daily Streptomycin and initially appeared to be making a clinical response but because he developed a reaction to the drug it had to be stopped. The remainder of the supply was given to two other patients, who did well. Orwell, who completed his novel 1984 during his stay in Hairmyres, made a generous donation which enabled Dick to purchase thoracic surgery instruments from the United States, through Orwell's American publisher.

As one of the pioneers of thoracic surgery in Britain, he was a founder member of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and went on to become its President.

He continued to develop his interest and expertise in surgical pathology, an interest which was not confined to the thoracic cavity, and he became an authority on the subject. With Sir Charles Illingworth (q.v.), he wrote A Textbook of Surgical Pathology in 1932, a book which was to become obligatory reading for a generation of surgeons in training.

Over his lifetime he had amassed a huge collection of teaching X-rays, which he left to the College. A generous bequest from his estate allowed this collection to be catalogued and presented for surgical teaching, and the collection was then made available for study to postgraduate students in the Bruce Dick Room in the College. Dr Bill Copland further improved the collection, adding to the descriptions of the films to enhance their teaching value. The collection of over 2,000 images has now been converted to a digital format. In this way, the Bruce Dick collection of radiographs may one day be available through the College's website to new generations of surgeons around the world.

Bruce Dick died on 28 May 1967.