En Passant

En Passant

' ' ' ' ' ' E N PAS SA NT ' ' ' ' ' ' ' a similar coin across the RappahanIs your hospital going through a perinock. He was a baseball player, no...

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a similar coin across the RappahanIs your hospital going through a perinock. He was a baseball player, not od of reorganization? Consider the an historian or professional geografollowing. "We trained hard-but it pher (Globe and Mail Feb 22, seemed that every time we formed 1996). He may have been the first into teams, we would be reorganized. to try to test historical hypotheses by I was to learn in later life that we repeating the experiments. He certend to meet any new situation by tainly had a lead on Thor Heyerdahl reorganizing. And what a wonderful who sailed the raft "Kon-Tiki" method it can be for creating the across the Pacific to demonstrate illusion of progress while producing that the early settlers could have inefficiency, confusion and demoralFRCSC, MD, Taylor, P.J. Department of Obstetrics and used this means of transport. ization." The author? Gaius PetronGynaecology, University of British Columbia ius Arbiter, 1st Century AD. • A cohort of a Roman legion was made up of 500 men. The J SOGC • Gaius PA shared a praenomen with prize for anyone who can emulate small a offering is the Rome, another Gaius, GJ Caesar (In ancient Caesar's classic feat. It is reliably recorded that "Caepraenomen was one's given name as opposed to one's sar trans flumen tres cohortes iacet"(Caesar threw nomen or family name). Apart from crossing the three cohorts across the river). I reckon that anyone Rubicon, old GJ left us obstetricians a puzzle. Should that degree of stamina deserves to have an operwith secwe call an abdominal delivery a "Caesarean" ation named after him; after all, any trained obstetion, in honour of his reputed method of birth or a trician should be able simply to cut, but to throw "cesarian" section derived from the Latin verb 1,500 men? I bet a lot of us couldn't even make it "cedare" to cut? We thought we had solved this a silver dollar. with conundrum in the Journal SOGC by consulting • Enough ancient history. Put it down to advancing Oxford, because in there, the verb to cut is given its years, although being of my generation may have full Latin dipthong, "caedare," as in "hAEmatology" conferred certain advantages. A study of young men or "prAEvia." In this case, caesarean is correct irrein Scotland has shown that there has been an averspective of the word origin. Unfortunately, this only age drop of 25 percent in sperm counts in the last 20 works well at the beginning of sentences when rules years (Globe and Mail24 Feb, 1996). In a previous of typography and syntax call for the use of a capicolumn, I remarked on the propensity of certain tal letter "C." In mid-sentence, a lower case "c" is schoools of literary criticism to dismiss the work of capia but correct if the derivation is from caedare Classic European authors as the efforts of"dead white tal "C" is demanded if Gaius Julius is the correct males." At the current rate of decline, could we be root. And you thought editing was easy. This Edifacing a situation of extinct white males, or are the tor would welcome advice from any reader who can authors of the study simply emulating Chicken Litshed illumination on the correct derivation. All of tle rushing about crying "The count is falling. The this fuss could have been avoided if Brutus had been count is falling"? delivered abdominally. If such had been the case, • There has been a reduction in the number of eggs there would be no confusion over the spelling of laid by Canadian chickens to 41.1 million dozen, a "Brutal section." 0.8 percent decrease (Globe and Maill3 Feb, 1996). • George Washington is reputed to have thrown a silIn a counter attack on Chicken Little, hen runs in ver dollar across the Potomac River. Actually he Canada are being invaded by oligozoospermic Scotstossed stones across the Rappahannock. In 1936, a men all crying "The egg count is falling. The egg professional baseball player, Walter (The Big count is falling." Train) Johnson, in deference to Washington hurled



JOURNAL SOGC

736

JULY 1996