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On being eighty
DIVERTICULUM On
If you have vainly tried to scrape it off a child’s shoe or had to take an animal to the veterinary surgeon after it has frantically licked the fur off its feet trying to dislodge a matted mass between its toes, you would agree that it is time to explore a solution. Dried spittle was long held responsible for the transmission of certain infections. Perhaps the microbiologists and environmental health officers who now make life impossible for caterers should turn their attention to this question. A simple experiment shows that gum sticks best to a rough or hairy surface and an opportunity to dispose of it hygienically could be provided by placing gum-parks made of rough-surfaced boards of compressed paper in a holder
:
being eighty
To the young it seems unbelievable to be eighty, but in fact it’s not as different as you expect. An old man is simply a young man with less future. Leaving aside disabilities, your outlook is much the same as it was when you you
forty, or sixty. Obviously very likely to reach a hun-
twenty,
were
are not
dred, but then you don’t want to. There is always a future. : Your capacities are less, both physically and mentally. I am a Do-ItYourself enthusiast, but I am less ambitious and I don’t go on too long with any one job. Mentally, I of course cannot so easily remember names and even words, but what is more surprising is that I can remember about 95% of what I need. The neurologists say that words are the last things to go. True about the handling of words perhaps, but not quite true about individual words. Nevertheless it is only occasionally that I am stuck. I am also a part-time writer, and it does not . appear that my powers are greatly: diminished in that way. The last piece I wrote, about 14 000 words, was a memoir of the medical aunt who brought me up. I have a friend who is a critical fellow and naturally he found a . few errors, but he also pleased me by coming out spontaneously with the remark that it was "a damned good read". : So keep going, those of you who are twenty, forty, sixty-you will find the target of eighty to be well worth achieving, and not as beyond the pale as
Publication delays in the age of steam
:
In the February, 1908, issue of Volume 10 of the Journal of the Royal Army : Medical Corps there were two letters which show that publication was at bus-stops, outside public buildings, in those days. The letter from Colonel and at other strategic points. The J G MacNeece, dated llth January, boards could be removed when fully Malta, began "Sir,-the January numloaded and disposed of with due preber of the Journal has just reached caution for handling contaminated Malta". The second, from Lt Col waste. Could the material be re-cycled? Barnett Wilson, dated 20th December, calculation Who knows, but a Alexandria, began "Dear Sir,-I notice . shows that there arerough the makings of in the Journal of November last...". : innumerable bouncy castles. and mail were
rapid
J
Journals probably sent steamer across the Channel, by by rail France to and Marseilles, through Leeds, UK thence by steamer to Malta and Layinka Swinburne Alexandria. There might have been delays for suitable ships. Journals were typeset by hand and papers in, for example, the Journal of the Royal Sani- : Poppycock tar _v Institute of January, 1906, were corrected by authors from proofs. Attention shoppers! Stand in queues! We bring you most exciting news! H V Wyatt UK Leeds,
long
Soon all health food chains will stock Our most nutritious Poppycock!
you
might imagine. Mackenzie Stewart
Breast
: Hexham, UK
Yet, here’s a spot
Barony
Coldstream Kirk Session Records
416
: :
1725
G A C Binnie Berwick upon Tweed,
it as you please down on calories, While cutting For Poppycock, and only that, Can energise but not make fat. eat
use of chewing-gum rises during At tea time for a special treat periods of social tension. The evidence Try Poppycock with chicken meat. is at our feet. Wherever you look you At supper, with no risk of shock, will see mini-blobs in all stages of disEat chicken meat with Poppycock. integration, progressing from pink and buff lumps through flattened cream Trace minerals, like precious beads splodges to faint grey shadows. They In Poppycock suffice our needs. disfigure corridor carpets, pavements, : Diseases that our lives could wreck and roads all over the country. In the By Poppycock are kept in check. walk from the main hospital entrance to the doors of the Accident and EmerBut if you tire of Poppycock gency Unit there are usually about a ’. Our gallant chefs will stand the shock. hundred cigarette butts and an almost Soon they will make delicious hash equal number of blobs. However, the From body-building Balderdash! gum-butt ratio varies with the site, differing in undercover walk-ways and Thomas Moore Hereford, UK those exposed to the weather. Two of under-reporting occur. sources Areas round supermarkets that are Footnote: Dr Thomas Moore’s first publication in swept regularly may give a false impres-
The
screening 1725
"There having been a young child murdered and thrown into a well beside Mrs Mercer’s house in this town and found on Tuesday last, the Baillies, Minister and Elders did met and caused the town to be searched and all unmarried women’s breast to be tryed, . but no discovery being made, a letter was sent to the Sheriff to acquaint him of that sad affair as also John Cranston officer in my Lord Binnings was employed to goe through the whole parish to advertise the severall : inhabitants to make enquiry after any suspected person and to give timeous notice if any should be found."
Aug 29th,
For luncheon
UK
sion of the number of smokers
passing
through whilst chewing-gum disinte, grates faster in rain and snow.
The Lancet was 65 years ago: Moore T. A note on carotin and Vitamm A. Lancet 1929; i: 499-500.
’
If you have vainly tried to scrape it off a child’s shoe or had to take an animal to the veterinary surgeon after it has frantically licked the fur off its feet trying to dislodge a matted mass between its toes, you would agree that it is time to explore a solution. Dried spittle was long held responsible for the transmission of certain infections. Perhaps the microbiologists and environmental health officers who now make life impossible for caterers should turn their attention to this question. A simple experiment shows that gum sticks best to a rough or hairy surface and an opportunity to dispose of it hygienically could be provided by placing gum-parks made of rough-surfaced boards of compressed paper in a holder
:
being eighty
To the young it seems unbelievable to be eighty, but in fact it’s not as different as you expect. An old man is simply a young man with less future. Leaving aside disabilities, your outlook is much the same as it was when you you
forty, or sixty. Obviously very likely to reach a hun-
twenty,
were
are not
dred, but then you don’t want to. There is always a future. : Your capacities are less, both physically and mentally. I am a Do-ItYourself enthusiast, but I am less ambitious and I don’t go on too long with any one job. Mentally, I of course cannot so easily remember names and even words, but what is more surprising is that I can remember about 95% of what I need. The neurologists say that words are the last things to go. True about the handling of words perhaps, but not quite true about individual words. Nevertheless it is only occasionally that I am stuck. I am also a part-time writer, and it does not . appear that my powers are greatly: diminished in that way. The last piece I wrote, about 14 000 words, was a memoir of the medical aunt who brought me up. I have a friend who is a critical fellow and naturally he found a . few errors, but he also pleased me by coming out spontaneously with the remark that it was "a damned good read". : So keep going, those of you who are twenty, forty, sixty-you will find the target of eighty to be well worth achieving, and not as beyond the pale as
Publication delays in the age of steam
:
In the February, 1908, issue of Volume 10 of the Journal of the Royal Army : Medical Corps there were two letters which show that publication was at bus-stops, outside public buildings, in those days. The letter from Colonel and at other strategic points. The J G MacNeece, dated llth January, boards could be removed when fully Malta, began "Sir,-the January numloaded and disposed of with due preber of the Journal has just reached caution for handling contaminated Malta". The second, from Lt Col waste. Could the material be re-cycled? Barnett Wilson, dated 20th December, calculation Who knows, but a Alexandria, began "Dear Sir,-I notice . shows that there arerough the makings of in the Journal of November last...". : innumerable bouncy castles. and mail were
rapid
J
Journals probably sent steamer across the Channel, by by rail France to and Marseilles, through Leeds, UK thence by steamer to Malta and Layinka Swinburne Alexandria. There might have been delays for suitable ships. Journals were typeset by hand and papers in, for example, the Journal of the Royal Sani- : Poppycock tar _v Institute of January, 1906, were corrected by authors from proofs. Attention shoppers! Stand in queues! We bring you most exciting news! H V Wyatt UK Leeds,
long
Soon all health food chains will stock Our most nutritious Poppycock!
you
might imagine. Mackenzie Stewart
Breast
: Hexham, UK
Yet, here’s a spot
Barony
Coldstream Kirk Session Records
416
: :
1725
G A C Binnie Berwick upon Tweed,
it as you please down on calories, While cutting For Poppycock, and only that, Can energise but not make fat. eat
use of chewing-gum rises during At tea time for a special treat periods of social tension. The evidence Try Poppycock with chicken meat. is at our feet. Wherever you look you At supper, with no risk of shock, will see mini-blobs in all stages of disEat chicken meat with Poppycock. integration, progressing from pink and buff lumps through flattened cream Trace minerals, like precious beads splodges to faint grey shadows. They In Poppycock suffice our needs. disfigure corridor carpets, pavements, : Diseases that our lives could wreck and roads all over the country. In the By Poppycock are kept in check. walk from the main hospital entrance to the doors of the Accident and EmerBut if you tire of Poppycock gency Unit there are usually about a ’. Our gallant chefs will stand the shock. hundred cigarette butts and an almost Soon they will make delicious hash equal number of blobs. However, the From body-building Balderdash! gum-butt ratio varies with the site, differing in undercover walk-ways and Thomas Moore Hereford, UK those exposed to the weather. Two of under-reporting occur. sources Areas round supermarkets that are Footnote: Dr Thomas Moore’s first publication in swept regularly may give a false impres-
The
screening 1725
"There having been a young child murdered and thrown into a well beside Mrs Mercer’s house in this town and found on Tuesday last, the Baillies, Minister and Elders did met and caused the town to be searched and all unmarried women’s breast to be tryed, . but no discovery being made, a letter was sent to the Sheriff to acquaint him of that sad affair as also John Cranston officer in my Lord Binnings was employed to goe through the whole parish to advertise the severall : inhabitants to make enquiry after any suspected person and to give timeous notice if any should be found."
Aug 29th,
For luncheon
UK
sion of the number of smokers
passing
through whilst chewing-gum disinte, grates faster in rain and snow.
The Lancet was 65 years ago: Moore T. A note on carotin and Vitamm A. Lancet 1929; i: 499-500.
’