Ischaemic heart disease--a challenge to radiology.

Abstract

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am more than conscious of my obligation this evening in giving this year's Mackenzie Davidson Memorial Lecture to this distinguished audience. For me this occasion is not only a very great pleasure but also a considerable responsibility. I feel greatly honoured by your invitation, Mr. President, to fulfil this task. The occasion is particularly significant since this is the first time the General Meeting is being held at 36 Portland Place. This year will be remembered as a turning point in the history of the British Institute of Radiology. Sir James Mackenzie Davidson practised as an ophthalmic surgeon in Aberdeen at the end of the last century, at a time when Roentgen made his great discovery. In 1896 he visited Roentgen to find out all he could about this exciting discovery and when he came to London in 1897 he joined the staff of the Charing Cross Hospital as an ophthalmologist. From that year on, however, he devoted most of his time to the development of radiology and soon became the head of the X-ray Department at Charing Cross Hospital and the Moorfields Eye Hospital. There is no doubt that Sir James Mackenzie Davidson was one of the founders of radiology in Britain. Even in those days he always stressed the great value of physics to radiology and its importance for radiation measurements and equipment development.