Dr. Favio Pliilip Opitz was born in Danzig [now Gdansk] in 1910., and his memoirs begin with a fascinating account of his birthplace and family background, and the international events occurring at and after his birth After his Jewish parents emigrated to Australia, they lived in Sydney in a street in the Rocks area which was later demolished when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built. Like all emigrants, they had financial struggles and later at Newtown school he encountered anti Semitism-but they survived, and he attended Canterbury High School, and then began Medicine at Sydney University.

He recalls in great detail the entry criteria for medicine in those days [including a compulsory second language as well as latin -but no compulsory science!] The medical course followed the usual pattern of that era, with 3 preclinical years and 3 clinical years [which remained little changed until the 1990s]. Apart from a few rare scholarships, all students-or their parents - had to find money for all fees, and of course living expenses for the 6 years. He worked in the family business part time to help with finances.

At that time 4th year students could work as a resident at St. Vincent's Hospital for weeks at a time, and were paid £1 per week [this was before the student had done any clinical work !.]

After graduation, he went to the Mater hospital at North Sydney and then to MMH in Newcastle [to learn surgery from Dr. Sam Gardner]-at first he was the only resident! Sam started his list at 7am but Dr. Mick Henry stated at 6.30 am, as a resident he lived in, but had one night off each fortnight.

He then did a long term [6 years] locum for Mick Henry while he was at the war, and after that general practice with a lot of surgery and obstetrics [100 mids per year] He describes doing the first ever Caesarean section at the WSH, and how he became an orthopaedic surgeon by default [the post left over after the war !].

Also included are sidelights on the effects of the polio epidemics, the serious osteomyelitis cases, and amusing sidelights on how he and Dr. Kevin Johns gave the Cana premarriage lectures for the Nuns at the MMH--all described with the gentle humour which was his trademark.