Colour vision

Editorial Colour vision 2006 is an important bicentenary for the Ulster Medical Society. In 806, the Belfast Medical Society was founded and the later formation of the Belfast Clinical and Pathological Society in 853, allowed amalgamation of both societies to form the current Ulster Medical Society in 862. The vision of the early founders of the Belfast Medical Society, was far sighted, and some historical articles later this year will deal with aspects of this to commemorate the bicentenary. Dr John Logan, the Ulster Medical Societys' archivist, documents the history of the formation and publication of the 'transactions of the Ulster Medical Society' – the predecessor of the Ulster Medical Journal in this issue. The Ulster Medical Journal itself has had two changes this year – this is the first volume that has officially exceeded two issues since the shortage of paper during the war caused reduction of the four issues to two. 2 We hope that the three issues planned for this volume will become a permanent feature and we aim (costs permitting) to have some additional content available electronically on the website to enhance the paper edition. We do not know if a paper version of the journal will continue with the advent of digital flexible hand held optical reading devices (electronic books), and our colour vision (figure) of the future journal in 206 is hard to predict. Professor David Hadden, a former editor of the journal outlines the interesting history of the visionary editors and assistant editors of the journal to date, and includes some personal insights illustrating their careers. Peter: Worse still, one hadn't even been coloured in! * in the interests of political correctness, substitute male or female versions of Canadian, Newfoundlander, Pole, Kerryman, and other suitable ethnic variants here to suit local conditions. The second change is the inclusion of colour for the first time throughout the journal. Cost savings in the delivery of electronic copy to the printers have allowed us to increase the number of issues and provide colour at minimal extra expense and we hope you enjoy the end result. Two colour plates appeared in the early history of the journal in a paper by TC Dodds in 939 on the use of the recently invented Finlay colour photographic process for pathology slides. 4 The war again intervened and stopped any further advance in this direction. The next colour plate was …