ABSTRACT
IT is an honour to give the William Pickles Lecture, and it is especially pleasing to give it in this part of Scotland, so near the birthplace of James Mackenzie. Mackenzie and Pickles were two of the most distinguished scientists general practice has pro duced. Mackenzie did his original research in Burnley on the western edge of the Pennines; Pickles did his in Aysgarth, on the eastern edge, only 35 miles away. Pickles must have known Burnley well, for he married a Burnley woman. There is no indi cation that the two men ever met. Even so, Pickles was pro foundly influenced by Mackenzie’s work. It was his reading in 1926 of Mackenzie’s Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment in Heart Conditions that inspired Pickles to begin his research into the epidemiology of infectious diseases.
