The Thirty-Second Annual Meeting

Abstract

Something like a tidal wave swept into the Palmer House, Chicago, the first week in December, when over 1,400 radiologists and 237 exhibitors and speakers assembled for the Thirty-second Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America. The Program Committee, whose job is never an easy one, deserves the highest praise for the fine scientific sessions that they arranged. It is doubtful if a program containing so many significant papers has been presented since the earliest days of the development of Radiology. After a cordial welcome from Dr. Robert S. Berghoff, President of the Illinois State Medical Society, the formal program opened on Monday morning, Dec. 2, with a prophetic note. The President's address, “Radiology and the Future,” was given by Lowell Goin in his own polished and inimitable style. He sounded a warning and offered good advice about the future developments in economic and social conditions of radiologic practice. His words should be heeded, for there is none who understands the problems better than he, or is more competent to meet them. The rest of the first day was devoted to a masterly symposium on the Plutonium Project, presided over by Austin M. Brues, Director of the Argonne National Laboratory and Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Chicago. The speakers came from Maryland to California. Their subjects ranged from a description of the pile to the histologic changes following irradiation. While much of the material was beyond the grasp of many of us in the audience, a little knowledge filtered in to form a foundation for future growth. The importance of this symposium is great, for it presented a mass of biological and physical facts from a new source that is undoubtedly going to change our methods of practice, our knowledge of physiology, and no doubt our daily lives. This, the first lesson, while it sounded hard as it came over the microphone, should be invaluable when we have a chance to study the papers as they are published. A fitting climax to the day came at the Membership Dinner, when the Gold Medal of the Society, awarded for the first time since 1941, was presented to Robert S. Stone for his work on the atom bomb project and its application to medicine. As Chief of the Health Division of the MED project, for the Manhattan Engineer District, Army Service Forces, Dr. Stone was in charge of essential research and investigations of the radiation hazards involved in the operation of the entire project. Some of the fission products of Monday's program scattered over into succeeding days. Of particular importance was a paper on the “Application of Radioactive Isotopes to a Study of Radiation Effects in Cells,” by Martin D. Kamen, Ph.D. This paper will require careful study, with, as the discussants pointed out, a dictionary at hand.