Radiation induced cancer in man.

“November the 8th, 1895, will ever be memorable in the history of science. On that day a light which, so far as human observation goes never was on land or sea, was first observed.” “The observer, Professor Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen. The place, the Institute of Physics in the University of Wurzburg in Bavaria.” These were the opening remarks of Professor Silvanus Thompson, F.R.S., in the first Presidential Address of the Rontgen Society (precursor of the British Institute of Radiology) at a meeting held in the evening of Friday, November 5, 1897, at St. Martin's Town Hall, London. Referring to the newly-discovered rays as “making darkness visible”, Silvanus Thompson continued “But if the rontgen ray has brought to the medical practitioner such a powerful aid, it has also brought new and bewildering problems …. Exposure to the rays frequently resulted in severe local inflammation of the skin, accompanied in some cases with destruction—at least temporary—of the hair, which fell out, leaving bald patches.” With...