The Relation of Air Ionization to Radiation Absorbed and the Effect on Body Tissues

Abstract

AS Dr. Taylor has announced, this is a volunteer contribution to replace some of the absentees on the program. The detail of my subject matter is not at hand but in New York. The presentation is, therefore, extemporaneous, with a further apology for the hastily prepared slide of the chart. This difficulty will be remedied in the final publication. Physicists have done much to give us standards of quantitative and qualitative measurements. There remains considerable doubt and controversy, with uncertainty in the linking of the physical dose measurement with observed skin reaction and biologic effect. Until some definite relation between physical quantitative and qualitative radiation measurements and skin and biological reaction is established present-day standardization remains but an arbitrary estimate of radiant energy or tube output. For more than twenty years we have continued our study of these problems, and in an article published as early as 1920 (1) I recorded my impressions on the relation of ski...