dr livingstone, i presume?downloads.hindawi.com/journals/crj/1995/687920.pdf · i presume? it seems...

EDITORIAL

Dr Livingstone, I presume? I t seems to me that physici :111s are much more likely than the membe rs o f othe r

profess ions to take on exploration or se lfless service in di stant parts of the world. l can think o f at least a dozen physicians who by their j ourneys have made me feel totall y hid:.ing in imagination and the spirit of adventure. O f chest physic ians I have worked with, the om: who comes to mind most colourfull y is Phi lip Hugh-Jones, who first desc ribed T ( for fomaica) diabetes and later c:mied out imaginative research into reg ional vent ilation-perfusio n relationsh ips. Eve n more imaginat ive were his regu lar expcdi tiuns to head-hunting country in the uppe r reaches of the Amawn and in Boliv ia, including one in which he was alone for severa l weeks . In spite of our bets to the contrary. he a lway~ made it hack. complete with bush babies and poison dart blowp ipes that effectively got yo ur attention. ii. you happened to be do1.i ng in the back row of the lec ture theatre. This example is. I adm it, a little ex treme. but there are many other examples of phys ician~ who have endured hardsh ip and Ji scomfort in fo llowing their bl iss to remote parts of the world.

A mong these must surely be listed Noe Zame l. whose C hristie Memorial Lect ure appears in the first issue o f ou r second volume (p 18). The thought that the island of Tristan da C unha might be the place to estab li sh a genet ic basis for asthma is an example of Medawar·s princ iple that creat ive imag ination is a prime requ irement for success ful science. It nl'cded more than imagination lo Gtrry out this study. however. and it needs a reading between the lines of Noe Zamcl'\ typically un<lers latcd account to gain an apprec iation o f the commitment and dedication that he and Pat McC lcan showed in crn nplcling it so successfu lly . O f the island's pupulatiun of 301, complete data were obtained in 282 (94q ). We await the rl'su lh wit h considerable interest, bearing in mind the recent discovery of the cyst ic fib rosis gene at the Research Ins! itutL' or The Hospit al fur S ick Children in Toronto .

Medawar's view was that ··sL·icntific reasoning is an exploratory d ialogue that can a lways be resolved into two vo ices or two episodes o f thought, imagi native and critical. which alternate and interact" . T he imagi nat ion and explorati on have take n place : the c riti ca l examination of the hypothesis is to come. but whet he r it is supported or refuted, there can be no douht that the effort will have been worthwhile . Darwin would certainly have approved, even though he passed up the chancc to visi t Tristan da C un ha on the las t leg or hi s fi ve-year voyage on the Beagle. His secrets fo r success - '"a love o r sc ic ncc, unbounded patience in long reflecting over any su bject, industry in obse rving and co llect ing fac ts. and a fair share of in vention as wl'll as of common sense". We may find the m all in Dr Zame l' s story .

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Nom11111 I . Jones MD /:'ditr 1r-i11 -Chie(

Canadial! Resp iratory Journal

Can Respir J Vol 2 No 1 Spring 1995

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