4 Applied Biophysics 



amount at wave lengths of a few centimeters, and applicable to 

 the heating of the human body. 



No physicist turning over the pages of an anatomy textbook 

 can fail to see before him fascinating problems in mechanics and 

 the strengths of materials, yet how little we know of the 

 mechanics of fractures or of the instantaneous stresses and strains 

 when the human frame suffers some sudden impact or gradually 

 changing pressure. 



It would be, however, tedious and little to the point to attempt 

 to enumerate the various direct or indirect effects which physi- 

 cal techniques have had on medicine, for no list can be complete 

 and the influence is sufficiently obvious. 



History of Medical Physios 



It would be a fascinating task to trace the history of the connec- 

 tion between physics and medicine. The interaction might per- 

 haps be seen as twofold, the two eternal aspects of scientific 

 progress ; on the one hand the gradual development of specific 

 techniques and on the other the grasping of great generalizations, 

 which transform the picture of the world and so, of man's sup- 

 posed place in it and the significance of his needs. 



Most frequently, the repercussions of physical discoveries are 

 incidental and not at all in the mind of the discoverer. Rontgen 

 may have been gratified at the medical utility of X-rays, but cer- 

 tainly no such application was in his mind. This consideration 

 should be kept continually in view in the development of medical 

 research programs, where the widest possible latitude is neces- 

 sary. The point is rather the importance of the closest correla- 

 tion between pure science and medical practice, and the necessity 

 for organization to secure the most rapid and efficient develop- 

 ment of scientific discoveries of medical importance. 



If it appears that medicine has a debt to physics, there must 

 be at least some corresponding recognition of the contributions 

 made to the fundamental sciences of those whose primary educa- 

 tion has been medical. Certainly we cannot claim that the physi- 

 cist interested in medical problems is a new phenomenon or that . 



