Born 30 July 1888, the second of the five sons of George Chalmers Cutler, lumber manufacturer and merchant, and Mary Carr Wilson, his wife. He was educated at Volkmann Preparatory School, at Brookline Public School, Massachusetts, and at Harvard, where he graduated in arts 1909, and in medicine 1913. He served as house surgeon and resident surgeon at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital 1913-15 and then joined the Harvard unit at the American ambulance hospital in Paris, before the official entry of the United States into the war. He worked at the Massachusetts General Hospital 1915-16 and at the Rockefeller Institute in New York 1916-17. He was resident surgeon at the Brigham again 1919-21. In 1921 he was appointed associate in surgery at Harvard, and in the following year chairman of the department of surgery and director of the laboratory of surgical research, but in 1924 he resigned these appointments on becoming professor of surgery at the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, Ohio, and chief surgeon at the Lakeside Hospital. At Harvard he had begun his pioneer work in the operative treatment of valvular disease of the heart, performing his first successful operation in 1923. He followed up this work while at Cleveland, publishing a series of epoch-making papers on the surgery of the heart. When Harvey Cushing retired Cutler was the natural successor to be recalled to Boston, and he was duly elected Moseley professor of surgery at Harvard and surgeon-in-chief of the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Here he continued his work in thoracic surgery, undertaking among other successful innovations total thyroidectomy for angina pectoris (1934). His only book, *Atlas of Surgical Operations* 1939 in collaboration with Robert Zollinger, is a folio volume, fully illustrated, intended as a young surgeon's guide for the acquisition of a safe technique. Cutler took a leading part in the work of surgical societies. He was a member of the Society of Clinical Surgery, the New England Surgical Society, the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, and the American Board of Surgery, the semi-official educational and disciplinary council. The Boston Surgical Society awarded him its most coveted prize, the Henry Jacob Bigelow gold medal. At the very end of his life he was elected president of the American Surgical Association. When America joined in the second world war, Cutler immediately took up the post of chief consultant in surgery to the United States army in Europe with the rank of brigadier, and from 1942 to 1945 had his head¬quarters in London. He was already a personal friend of the leading London surgeons, and his active presence here did much to promote the most friendly co-operation between British and American surgeons. He promoted the regular inter-allied conferences on war medicine 1942-45 (*Report* published 1947) held under the auspices of the Royal Society of Medicine, and in 1943 led with Sir Gordon Gordon-Taylor the Anglo-American surgical mission to Russia. He had been elected an honorary Fellow of the College on 8 April 1943. During the last year of the war he served with the American armies on the Continent, and was twice cited for the United States Distinguished Service Medal for his war service. He proved himself one of the best ambassadors whom America could have sent to England, and endeared himself to all with whom he came in contact. But he overtaxed his strength and, although he threw himself again with his accustomed zest into the full stream of his busy life at home, he was already stricken with illness and died at Boston on 16 August 1947, aged 59. Cutler married on 24 May 1919 Caroline Pollard Parker, who survived him with four sons; their only daughter had died before him. He practised at 721 Huntington Avenue, Boston, and lived at 61 Heath Street, Brookline. He was a tall man with striking aquiline features, a modern representative of the distinguished "colonial" American type, with a most genial and attractive manner. Besides his original contributions to thoracic surgery, Cutler was notable for the tradition of the finest surgical technique which he established among a whole generation of pupils. Publications:- The surgical treatment of mitral stenosis, experimental and clinical studies, with S A Levine and C S Beck. *Arch Surg*. 1924, 9 ,689-821. The surgical aspect of mitral stenosis. *Arch Surg* 1926, 12, 212. Sympathectomy in angina pectoris, with J Fine. *J Amer Med Ass* 1926, 86, 1972. Summary of experiences up to date in the surgical treatment of angina pectoris. *Amer J Med Sci* 1927, 173, 613. The technique of cardiorrhaphy, with C S Beck.*Surg Gynec Obstet* 1927, 45, 74. The surgery of the heart and pericardium, with C S Beck. *Nelson loose-leaf living surgery* 1927, 4, 233. The present status of the treatment of angina pectoris by cervical sympathectomy.* Ann Clin Med* 1927, 5, 1004. The present status of the surgical procedures in chronic valvular disease of the heart, final report of all surgical cases, with C S Beck. *Arch Surg* 1929, 18, 403. The present status of cardiac surgery. *Surg Gynec Obstet* 1932, 54, 274. Total thyroidectomy for angina pectoris, with M T Schnitker. *Ann Surg* 1934 100, 578. Surgical methods for relief of pain in angina pectoris. French version, *Presse méd*, Paris, 1934, 42, 937. *Atlas of surgical operations*, with Robert Zollinger, illustrated by Mildred B Codding. New York: Macmillan, 1939; 2nd edition, 1949. The near-shore: plans for the reception, care and disposition of casualties. *Inter- Allied Conferences on war medicine* (October 1944), 1947, pp. 424-426. Surgery, the US forces. Ibid. (July 1945), 1947, pp. 498-502. The education of the surgeon.*New Engl J Med* 1947, 237, 466 (address on receiving Bigelow medal, with introductory remarks by Dr Joe V.Meigs).