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The life and the work of James Mackenzie Davidson spanned a great period in the initiation and development of our subject of radiology, and his own extensive contribution to its progress is admirably expressed in the letter which appeared in the medical journals following his death, above the signatures of leading statesmen, men of science and clinicians of the day (Bonar Law et al., 1920). “In this country he was rightly regarded as the head of his profession and throughout his career he was unsparing in his efforts to raise the status of radiology amongst the sciences. He was especially insistent on the fundamental value of physics to radiology, particularly in regard to methods of measurement and the designing of equipment, a subject in which he was deeply interested at the time of his death.” His wide perception of the practical applications of physical science to medicine emerges clearly from the published work of this remarkable man, from his early paper in 1886 introducing effective electrical illu...

Although post-graduate courses of instruction, books, papers in scientific and medical journals, etc., inform the medical profession concerning the essentials of radium therapy, there is, as yet, comparatively little public information available on the economic and administrative aspects of a hospital radium service. The need for this kind of information is very apparent at the present time, when the acquisition of radium for the treatment of malignant disease is under consideration by many groups of hospital authorities. Under these circumstances we have thought it would be of interest to publish the results of an analysis of some of the records which we, as radium custodians, have kept for several years at St. Bartholomew's Hospital. As an account of the organisation and equipment of the Radium Department of the Hospital has already been given, *† we shall here confine ourselves to the task of furnishing data for the guidance of those who have to answer the following questions:— Q.I. How many patients c...

The question of deciding what is the best dose to use in X-ray therapy is as unsettled as some of the international problems with which we are faced to-day, but, by reasonable consideration, accurate observation and recording of reactions and results, and the free co-operation without resort to violence which should be possible amongst radiotherapists, it should not be difficult to settle the radiological problems, even if words like insuperable are used of the international ones. As an introduction to the question, I propose to give some idea of the working hypothesis which has been guiding my footsteps in radiotherapy for the past six years, built up on information from so many sources that I cannot acknowledge them in detail in this short note. Any fundamental research, published or unpublished, chance observations in clinical papers, and my own clinical experience based on personal knowledge of all the patients treated in a clinic which has dealt with about 9000 patients since 1931, have all contribut...