[Jonathan Goddard (1617-1675), chemistry, medicine and the Royal Society]

Dr. Jonathan Goddard can be considered one of the most active natural philosophers of the Royal Sociaty for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge in London from its start in 1660 until Goddard's death in 1675. Already before the foundation of the Society Goddard was a prominent member of experimental groups. He was everywhere where the new philosophy had been developed and promoted and he was willing to do any curious experiment. Therefore we can consider Goddard as an example of the large group of minor natural philosophers and virtuosi. His activities give us a glimpse of the ideas of a group whose opinions and experiments served as a basis for the inventions and insights of the well known natural philosophers. The experiments Goddard and his colleagues did, show that the physicians of the Royal Society in the first place were investigating the essences of natural substances. The notions spirits and 'natural circulation' were central preoccupations. To know their working meant insight in the function of the human body. Chemistry was seen as an essential mean to gain insight into natural processes. It offered a theory of life and action and it provided the necessary equipment to separate pure principles and to distill spirits. Moreover, the human body itself was seen as a chemical laboratory. It was thought that the physician is only able to master this laboratory and to repair its defects when he knows everything about its working. Therefore physicians in the first place were busy finding out everything about pure principles. Only then they thought it possible to develop cures to restore balances and processes in the human body.

Epidemiologic highlights of the past with a look towards the future

Since the first meeting of the American Public Health Association in 1873, epidemiology and epidemiologists have been central to the activities of the organization. At that meeting, the most prominent American physician of the time, Austin Flint, presented a classic paper entitled "Relations of Water to the Propagation of Fever." In that remarkable paper, Flint reinterpreted observations on the North Boston, N.Y. typhoid fever epidemic made 30 years earlier in which he had correctly concluded that the epidemic had been propagated by contagion, but incorrectly concluded that transmission was not the result of contaminated drinking water. During the last quarter of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th, Annual Meetings of the APHA were frequently the locus for reports of epidemic investigations and the Journal of the Association was the vehicle for their publication. When the Association was reorganized to include discipline-oriented sections, the Epidemiology Section was among the first to be established. At the time, 1929, the Section was the only meeting place (outside the small and exclusive American Epidemiological Society) for epidemiologists to exchange ideas and information. The Section was also a place where public health policies were hotly debated. After World War II, academic departments of epidemiology increasingly focused the field on methodological issues and etiological investigations. Furthermore, new organizations and a plethora of epidemiological journals flooded the field. Thus, the Epidemiology Section has remained a major center for translating epidemiological knowledge into policy and is likely to intensify that function in the future.

From magic to science: a journey throughout Latin American medical mycology

The start of Latin America's love story with fungi may be placed in pre-Hispanic times when the use of fungi in both ritual ceremonies and daily life were common to the native civilizations. But the medical mycology discipline in Latin America started at the end of the 19th Century. At that time, scholars such as A. Posadas, R. Seeber, A. Lutz and P. Almeida, discovered agents of fungal diseases, the study of which has influenced the regional research ever since. Heirs to them are the researchers that today thrive in regional Universities and Research Institutes. Two current initiatives improve cooperation among Latin American medical mycologists. First, the periodical organization of International Paracoccidioidomycosis Meetings (seven so far, from 1979 to 1999); second, the creation of the Latin American Association for Mycology in 1991 (three Congresses, from 1993 to 1999). Latin American publications have increased in international specialized journals such as that from our Society (ISHAM) (from 8% in 1967 to 19% in 1999), and the Iberoamerican Journal of Mycology (Revista Iberoamericana de Micologia; > 40% from 1997 to 1999). In addition, Latin American participation at ISHAM International Congresses has risen from 6.9% in 1975 to 21.3% in 1997, and 43.2% at the 14th ISHAM Congress, held for the first time in a Latin American country, Argentina. A significant contribution of women to the scientific establishment of Latin American medical mycology (e.g., 45% of Latin American papers vs. 18% of other regions published in Journal of Medical and Veterinary Mycology in 1987, had women as authors or coauthors) suggests a better academic consideration of Latin American women against their counterparts in the developed world. Taken together, all these figures reflect the enthusiasm of our Latin American colleagues in the field, despite the difficulties that afflict our region, and affect our work.

Physics and engineering: milestones in medicine

The history of the development of the applications of physics and engineering in medicine provides an insight into contemporary practice and can help to mould the future. Physics and engineering form a continuum, and, in the present context, engineering is indistinguishable from applied physics. The modern scientific era, which extends over 500 years, is characterised by numerous significant developments: for example, the Nobel prizes which most closely relate to physics and engineering in medicine were for X-rays and radioactivity, the electrocardiogram, the scattering of radiation, the cyclotron, nuclear magnetic resonance, the transistor, radioimmunoassay and computed tomography; and a medical physicist has received the Peace Prize. The origins and development of nuclear medicine, magnetic resonance and ultrasonic imaging are representative of the whole field. Physics and engineering rank alongside other medical sciences and underpin many of their applications. In what is now the developed world, human life expectancy has increased dramatically, but the costs and risks of modern medicine have meanwhile become a huge problem. The growing divergence of rich and poor is now arguably the greatest challenge. The future cannot be predicted, but the potential of physics and engineering to improve medicine has never been greater.