Professor Tadeusz Orłowski -- editor-in-chief of the Polish Archives of Internal Medicine (1963-1994).

284 Professor Tadeusz Orłowski’s position of the edi‐ tor‐in‐chief of the Polish Archives of Internal Medicine (Polskie Archiwum Medycyny Wewnętrznej – PAMW) was not only an important part of his medical career but also a great benefit to the de‐ velopment of internal medicine in Poland. The first issue of the PAMW, an official journal of the newly established Polish Soci‐ ety of Internal Medicine, appeared in 1923. The first editor ‐in‐chief in the years 1923–1925 was Antoni Gluziński, followed by Władysław Janowski (1925–1928), who was then succeed‐ ed by Professor Witold Orłowski. The latter laid foundations for contemporary internal medicine in Poland, based on pathophysiology and clinical biochemistry. Professor Orłowski held the post until 1949 with a break during World War II and German occupation in Po‐ land. In 1949, the position of the editor‐in‐chief was taken over by Professor Andrzej Biernacki, Witold Orłowski’s student. He died in 1963 and was succeeded by Professor Tadeusz Orłowski, the son of Witold Orłowski. First a quarterly and then a month‐ ly, the PAMW published scientific papers of the highest possible quality. Control groups and statistical analyses became obligatory for all comparative papers. This may now appear odd, in the era of evidence‐based medicine, but in the previous decades many medical contribu‐ tions did not conform with these principles. All submissions used to be first read by Pro‐ fessor Orłowski. He would then select review‐ ers and approve the final version of the man‐ uscript corrected according to reviewers’ com‐ ments. Professor Orłowski in collaboration with myself introduced bilingual (Polish and English) captions to all figures and tables to‐ gether with English abstracts. Both captions and abstracts had to be often translated into English by a deputy editor. Potential new topics of future scientif‐ ic studies were often suggested by Profes‐ sor Orłowski to researchers and then published in the PAMW. In the 1970s, the PAMW faced serious fi‐ nancial difficulties. Polish economy was grad‐ ually crumbling. The editor‐in‐chief (Profes‐ sor Orłowski), his deputy (Janusz Szajewski) and the secretary (Ryszard Feldman) decid‐ ed to work for free, while the technical as‐ sistant (Mrs. Lidia Jaworek) was paid a to‐ ken sum of money. The monthly was printed on the lowest quality paper and in a smaller format. Owing to the great authority of Pro‐ fessor Orłowski and commitment of the edi‐ torial board, the PAMW managed to survive. At the same time a very popular Polish jour‐ nal, the Polish Medical Weekly (Polski Tygodnik Lekarski), appeared only in 100 copies and soon ceased to be published. As years went by and Professor Orłowski’s health deteriorated, many of his duties were taken over by his deputy and secretary, al‐ though Professor continued to select review‐ ers and make final decisions on consecutive PAMW issues. In 1994, Professor Orłowski resigned as the editor‐in‐chief and his decision left the whole editorial team with a sense of sadness. MeMorial article