E. A. Birch, the son of William Birch, J.P, of Roscrea, Tipperary, received his medical training at the City of Dublin Hospital and the School of the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland. On obtaining the L.R.C.S.I. qualification in 1861, he entered the Royal Navy as an assistant surgeon and served in the China War, being present at the actions of Kagosima and Simonoseki. He resigned in 1865 and a year later joined the Indian Medical Service. The greater part of his career was spent in Bengal. He served through the Bihar famine of 1874 and was civil surgeon of Hazaribagh for several years. From 1882 to 1889 he was superintendent of the Presidency European General Hospital in Calcutta, from 1890 to 1892 principal of the Calcutta Medical College, and from 1892 to 1893 inspector-general of civil hospitals, Bengal. An able administrator and physician, he was known throughout India as the author of a new version (1879) of H. H. Goodeve’s book on The Management and Treatment of Children in India, originally published in 1844. Birch retired in 1893 and a few years later settled in Okehampton, where he engaged in local politics as a Conservative. His wife was Caroline Thomasine, daughter of John Massy of Stagdale, Limerick; they had two sons and two daughters. Birch died in London.

G H Brown

[Lancet, 1912; B.M.J., 1912; Roll of I.M.S., 171]