The Role of Radioiodine in the Treatment of Carcinoma of the Thyroid

Abstract

I Would first like to thank you, Mr. President, and your Council for the honour you have done me in asking me to give this 33rd Mackenzie Davidson Memorial Lecture. It is a great privilege to be entrusted with the task. James Mackenzie Davidson was born on December 6th, 99 years ago. He trained to be a doctor, and when he was qualified, he took up ophthalmology. He is said to have been a man of sturdy commonsense and eager active mind, combined with singular charm of manner. He evidently had a natural talent for physics and was ever on the look-out for means of improving his work. When X rays were discovered in 1896, he immediately became interested in the possibilities of these rays as applied to his own speciality and shortly afterwards developed a radiological method for localisation of foreign bodies in the eye. He went on to become the titular head of the newly formed X-ray departments both at Moorfields and Charing Cross Hospitals. At first one might consider that he was fortunate in that the discovery of X rays came just at a time when he was in a position to profit from the discovery. But on reflection one remembers that many others had a similar opportunity, and personally I think he illustrates that admirable dictum of Claude Bernard that “chance never visits the mind that is unprepared”.