Linkow's first name is an omen by itself—Leonard. I wonder what his parents had in mind when they chose it for him. Great Michelangelo used to criticize Leonardo da Vinci as "a wasted talent, doing too many things". He would probably extol Linkow for doing just one great thing, of enormous import and of sufficient impact to do away with past tenets and somnolent habit.

Sometimes mankind fails to reward Linkow and men of his stature adequately: the people accept these great men, applaud them, take advantage of them—but soon forget the craftsman, the aesthete, in a word the bioengineering mind behind the invention. Yet I doubt that this will happen to Linkow. This man, even physically larger-than-life, looking at you from candid eyes but with boiling mercury in his veins —as Solochov would say—will remain in the gallery of men of extra-ordinary accomplishment.

He would, I like to imagine, have been a friend of Salvatore Quasimodo, the Nobel-Laureate poet who used words like cutting blows from the teeth. Our poet might comment: "Life is harsh soldiering; Linkow is the soldier of the continuous victory".

"The very air teems with sortileges, which no one can possibly avoid", wrote Goethe. And the same is true of the Linkow atmosphere, drenched in spiritual sunshine, brimming with human and humane messages. You leave a permanent imprint in the quicksands of time—happy those, like myself, who can count themselves among your friends!

Prof. Carlo Sirtori

Cancer Expert at the World Health Organization President, Carlo Erba Foundation—Milan General Director, G. Gaslini Institute, Genoa

References

1. Hardy A. The Biology of God: a Scientist's Study of Man, the Religious Animal. Jonathan Cape, London 1975, p. 238.

2. James R.A., Schultz R.L. Lamine dentarie e formazione di collagene. Un. Rass. Internaz.Odontostomatologia Pratica 3, 10, 1975.

3. Skerrow C.J., Gedeon-Matoltsy A. Chemical characterization of isolated epidermal desmosomes. J.Cell Biol. 63, 524, 1974.

4. Pecile A., De Bastiani G., Pietrogrande V., Sirtori C. Un Nuovo Ormone, la Calcitonina, et suo Impiego Terapeutico. Fondazione Carlo Erba Publ., Milan 1974, p.175.

5. Editorial. Titanium fixtures: bone tissues of legs used in jaw repair. Med.Trib., 12 March 1970.

6. Branemark P.I., Lindstrom J., Breine U., Jeppson P. H., Ohman A. Reconstruction of the defective mandible. Scand.J.Plact.Reconstr.Surg. 9, 116, 1975.