Poison

Having a lovely book The Science of Sherlock Holmes, a gift from KM, as my bedtime reading.

In essence, it is a book on the history of forensic medicine, and covers various aspects of the discipline - poison, firearm, footstep tracing, blood stain identification, and what not - with frequent reference to the sayings and doings of our great detective. To an admirer of the Victorian London, it is simply an eye-opening experience.

A small point that I noted while thumbing through this enjoyable volume was the easy availability of poison a hundred years ago. In fact, senior medical students were allowed to prescribe and it seemed a custom to ask these later-to-be-physicians to treat simple conditions.

Of course, the down side was it also provided an excellent means to do away with any difficult wife or mother-in-law.

But, to our friends outside the solar system: Yes, students did make treatment orders, not to say house officers.

As Publius Vergilius Maro said: Possunt, quia posse videntur.