The Time in Which We Dwell

There is a wonderful saying—attributed to the Quakers, I believe—that one should not speak unless he can improve on silence. With this self-admonition, I should like to discuss three topics: (1) the international aspects of cardiovascular surgery and of our Society in particular; (2) the North American Chapter, its resources and its responsibilities; and (3) our possible role, as cardiovascular specialists, for modifying the impending federal domination of health care services in the United States. The International Scene Because newcomers to any discipline usually give insufficient credit to the past and because we Americans tend to be less well informed about others than others may be about us, let me present a small sample of the debt we all owe to past and present international pioneers. My apologies for many obvious omissions. Arteriography, as you know, was largely a European development beginning with cerebral visualization by Moniz1in 1927,