Introduction of the Carman Lecturer

Abstract

MR. President, Dr. Golden, fellow members of the Radiological Society of North America and honored guests: Each year we gather to pay tribute to the memory and inspiration of Dr. Russell D. Carman. The Carman Lecturers and those who have introduced the Carman Lecturers have often told of his energy, his keenness of observation, his intellectual honesty, common sense and trustworthy professional judgment. The dramatic set-ting of his final illness and his own spiritual and physical courage are recalled and retold by all who knew him. Dr. Carman's most lasting contributions to our specialty have been embodied in his text on “Diagnosis of Diseases of the Alimentary Tract.” From the preface to this I quote these words: “The essentials of a satisfactory roentgen diagnosis are faithfulness to an orderly routine, careful observation, cautious interpretation, re-examination of doubtful cases, and a willingness to admit, whenever it is true, that the findings are inconclusive.” I want, also, to quote a supplementary thought from the editorial introduction of an equally celebrated text in diagnostic roentgenology written twenty years later: “Even when a positive roentgen diagnosis cannot be made, information of great aid in the handling of the patient may be obtained. The importance of cordial sympathetic co-operation of the clinician and roentgenologist and a frank discussion of specific clinical problems cannot be overemphasized.” These are the words of Dr. Ross Golden, tonight's Carman Lecturer, and just as my quotation from Dr. Golden's introduction supplements that of Russell Carman, so Dr. Golden's splendid work in the field of roentgen diagnosis of the gastro-intestinaI tract supplements that of the earlier master. Dr. Golden received his early training and inspiration under the tutelage of that master teacher and beloved preceptor, Dr. George W. Holmes, later being invited to head the Department of Roentgenology in the Presbyterian Hospital of New York City. He is editor of the splendid text “Diagnostic Roentgenology,” and author of the sections in it dealing with the abdomen and gastrointestinal tract. His numerous writings have been chiefly on this important and often baffling subject, and his lecture tonight, as is especially fit ting, deals with one of these problems, his subject being, “Abnormalities of the Small Intestine in Nutritional Disturbances, Some Observations on their Physiologic Basis.”