Born in Montreal on 5 August 1872, a son of John Sprott Archibald, a Canadian judge, and Ellen Hutchison his wife. The family was of Scotch-Irish descent and had emigrated to Montreal through New Hampshire and Nova Scotia during the eighteenth century. Archibald and his brothers and sisters were brought up to speak both English and French with equal facility, and he became a fluent and graceful orator in both tongues. He was educated at Montreal High School and matriculated at McGill University 1888, graduating in arts 1892 and in medicine 1896. He interrupted his course in his third year to spend a year at the University of Montpellier; one of his brothers worked in the faculty of law at Montpellier at the same time. After serving as an interne at the Royal Victoria Hospital he went in 1899 to Europe where he worked at various clinics and at the University of Freiburg. Archibald was impressed by the French system in which the medical student is treated as a member of the clinical team at the hospital and is introduced early to pathological problems. He paid numerous later visits to Europe, and worked at the National Hospital, Queen Square, London in 1906. He was elected an Hon MD of Paris in 1937 (*Canadian med Ass. J*. 1939, 40, 289: commendatory verses by W B Howell). Archibald was at first interested in the surgical pathology of neoplastic processes, and though he made notable contributions to various other special branches of surgical science, cancer problems continued to interest him throughout life. In all his surgical work he sought to fathom the underlying physiologic causes of abnormality or repair, in the true Hunterian tradition. When developing the surgery of the pancreas, he went deeply into the chemistry of enzymes; when pioneering lung surgery he studied the latest experimental work on control of respiration; when occupied with war fractures and gunshot wounds, he mastered the theory of ballistics. Archibald was appointed demonstrator of clinical surgery in the department of surgery at McGill in 1902, lecturer 1908, assistant professor 1918, professor of surgery and director of the department 1923, a post he held till 1937, when he was elected emeritus professor. He became assistant surgeon to the Children's Memorial Hospital, Montreal 1904 and chief surgeon 1930. At the Royal Victoria Hospital, the centre of the group of teaching hospitals connected with McGill Medical School, he was surgical interne 1896-99, chef de clinque 1899, surgeon in charge of dispensary and surgical pathologist 1908, surgeon 1918, chief surgeon 1928, and consulting surgeon 1932. On the outbreak of the first world war in 1914 he joined the Canadian Army Medical Corps and served in France from May 1915 with the rank of major, gazetted 6 May 1915, with No 3 Canadian General Hospital, first at Dannes-Carriers and later near Boulogne till 1917, having spent four months at No 1 Canadian casualty clearing station at Bailleul. He was one of the first surgeons to perform a blood transfusion in the allied armies; his first donor was Dr W B Howell, a life-long friend, and for many years his anaesthetist. As professor and chief surgeon he rejuvenated the somewhat traditional methods to which he succeeded, and founded a school of surgery which influenced the whole of North America. His teaching emphasized the necessity to combine scientific research with clinical practice. In 1932 he founded a cancer research section in the department of surgery at McGill, and worked there after retiring from the directorate of the department in 1937. He early realized the need for an adequate department of neurosurgery, and realized too that in spite of his own experience and skill in brain surgery he was not the man to undertake it. His influence secured the development of the outstandingly successful Montreal Neurological Institute in the university under Professor Wilder Penfield, Hon FRCS. Archibald took an active part in medical societies. Early in the century he was a leading promoter of the Society of Clinical Surgery, although considerably younger than most of the members. He was a founder of the American Interurban Surgical Society, a group of some thirty-five forward-looking surgeons of the eastern states and Canada. He was especially prominent in the American Surgical Association, and his activity in it did much to increase the cordial friendship of the profession across the American-Canadian border. His presidential address to the association in 1935 on "Higher degrees in the profession of surgery" led to the establishment in 1937 of the American Board of Surgery, one of the unofficial national specialty boards which assumed with success the standardizing of educational levels. His address also led to the formulation of a programme for graduate training in surgery by the American College of Surgeons, of which he had been a Fellow since the year of its foundation 1913. Among Archibald's more important researches was his study of interstitial pancreatitis, or as he called it "oedema of the pancreas". He also demonstrated experimentally the current hypothesis that acute pancreatic necrosis is chiefly due to the presence of bile in the pancreas. He was a pioneer of thoracic surgery, his interest having been aroused by the tentative surgery of chest wounds in France in 1916. He was one of the first surgeons in North America to operate for pulmonary tuberculosis, and became a charter member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, which he later served as president. He was elected an Hon FRCS in 1927, an Hon Fellow of the Australasian College in 1935, and an Hon Doctor of the University of Paris in 1937; he was a corresponding member of numerous European and American societies. He was awarded the Trudeau medal by the US National Tuberculosis Association in 1936, and the H J Bigelow medal by the Boston Surgical Society in 1937. He was a Fellow of the surgical division of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada from its foundation in 1930. "Eddie" Archibald was much beloved by patients and colleagues throughout North America and in Europe, and by a large circle of friends, in Montreal. He was inspiring, unselfish, and generous of time and trouble, though distressingly absent-minded and oblivious of punctuality. He was frail of physique, but never allowed ill-health or increasing deafness to interfere with his work. He was a very well-read man. Archibald married in 1904 Agnes Maud Black Barron, who survived him with four daughters. They lived at 3106 Westmount Boulevard, and he had practised at 900 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal, with consulting rooms also at 292 Somerset Street West, Ottawa. He died at Montreal on 17 December 1945, aged 73, after long illness. Publications (a short selection):- Surgical affections and wounds of the head. *American practice of surgery*, ed J D Bryant and A H Buck. New York, 1908, 5, 3. Pancreatitis. *International clinics*, 1918, series 28, 2, 1; *Canad J med and sci*. 1913, 33, 263; *Canad med Ass J*. 1913, 3, 87; *Surg Gynec Obstet* 1919, 28, 529; *J Amer med Ass*. 1918, 71, 798. The surgical treatment of unilateral pulmonary tuberculosis. *Amer J Surg*. 1924, 38, 17. The surgical treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis. *Canad med Ass J*. 1928, 18, 3. The dangers involved in the operation of thoracoplasty for pulmonary tuberculosis. *Surg Gynec Obstet*. 1930, 50, 146. A consideration of the dangers of lobectomy. *J thoracic Surg*. 1935, 4, 335.