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and those appointed by the boards to management com-mittees were chosen for their individual merit and not as

delegates representing professions or interests. Nomina-tion to regional hospital boards was not possible under theNational Health Service Act, but he for his part wasalways ready to consider good candidates brought to hisnotice, from whatever source.

Appointment of RegistrarsThe committee asked that the power of appointing

registrars at non-teaching hospitals should revert to

hospital management committees. It was agreed thatthis matter would be better left over pending furtherconsideration of the structure of junior hospital medicalstaffing.

’

Consultation before Issue of CircularsThe Minister reaffirmed his wish to consult the com-

mittee before issuing circulars with which they wereparticularly concerned. He regretted that the circularabout outpatient waiting-time had been issued withoutprior consultation, although there had been specialconsiderations demanding its speedy issue at that time.

1. Brief Lives and other Selected Writings edited by Anthony Powell.London, 1949 ; p. 48.

2. Ibid, p. 234.3. Paradisi in sole paradisus terrestis. 1629 (facsimile edition, 1904);

p. 529.

Before Our Time

" TAKE A COUPLE OF FAT VIPERS "

FRANCIS W. STEERF.S.A., F.R.Hist.S.

COUNTY ARCHIVIST, EAST AND WEST SUSSEX" When her head was opened there was found but little

braine, which her husband imputed to her drinking ofviper-wine ; but spitefull woemen would say ’twas a viper-husband who was jealous of her."

EVER since I first read Aubrey’s characteristic account iof the death in 1633 of the beautiful Venetia Stanley,wife of Sir Kenelm Digby, I have been puzzled by thelady’s choice of cordial. Wine made from vipers wouldnot seem-at any rate to a layman-conducive to

longevity, and I thought that perhaps the name was acolloquialism for an infusion of Radix serpentaria.2Aubrey himself offered some support for this theory forthat " admirable Chymist " Jonathan Goddard, M.D., hewrites " He had three or fower medicines wherewith hedid all his cures : a great ingredient was Radix Ser-peniaria."2 The plant is a garden variety of the cuckoo-pint (wild arum, lords and ladies), and John Parkinson,apothecary to James I, who uses the name Dracunculushortensis, writes that its " distilled water is given withMithridatum or Treakle to expell noysome and pesti-lential vapours from the heart."3 Another possibility Iconsidered was that vipers’ wine was really made from8corzonera or vipers’ grass. Its roots, preserved withsugar, according to the learned Parkinson again, havebeen " effectuall to expelling winde out of the stomacke,and to help swounings and faintnesse of the heart."But I was completely wrong in all my guesses. Lady

Digby did in fact drink a liquid of which the venomousEnglish snake was an ingredient. Proof that the reptilewas made into broth is to be found in the followingletter, written in 1778, by Mrs. Ann Fenton to her

nephew, John Charles Brooke (1748-94) SomersetHerald :

Dear Sir,I have deferred answering your very kind letter and

Enquiries after Mr Fentons health, in hopes of giving a moreSatisfactory account of it than has been in my power to do,till within some little time past ; But how, thank God I havethe pleasure of seeing a considerable alteration for the betterin my dear Husbands health, tho’ he is still rather thinner

than I wish him [to] be. We think the Viper Broth, & other

nourishing diet, and the extreme regularity in every respectthat has been observed, have, all together, been very service-able, and therefore the whole of the present regimen will becontinued, and I hope & trust, by the blessing of providence,with the happiest success.As the dried Vipers, ordered in the manner you obligingly

mentioned in your letter, seemed to answer pretty well, andit being doubtful whether the heat of the weather wouldpermit Live-ones to be brought from London, we contentedourselves with the former ; and have since heard that LiveVipers may be had at Doncaster if there should be occasionfor them....

I am Dear SirYr very affectionate Aunt

& humble ServtA: FENTON

B. Top July 26. 1778. A: FENTON

Mr Wainwright who will deliver you this letter sets out forYorkshire Next thursday the 30. inst and if some live Viperscould be got in time for him to bring down, Mr Fenton sayshe would be glad to have them, and think himself obligedto you if you will be so good as [to] give Mr Wainwrightdirections where to procure them, properly packed up for

bringing in the Coach with him.

Ralph Fenton of Banktop in Worsborough was clerkof the peace for the West Riding of Yorkshire ; he wasone to whom the expense in obtaining the remedy of hischoice was no object. The letter quoted above is amongthe small collection of Brooke’s MSS. and papers pre-served in the West Sussex Record Office at Chichester.Whatever the medicinal properties of the viper, I cannothelp feeling that a

" nest " of vipers, however properlypacked, would have been unpleasant travelling com-panions in a coach from London to, Yorkshire in the 18thor any other century.

Personal PapersNIGHT NURSE’S PARALYSIS

THE medical profession, in general, has little know-ledge of " night nurse’s paralysis " or (as I believe it istechnically called) affective hypertonus. Certainly, as anurse, I had not heard of it myself under either namewhen I first experienced it. ,

I was sitting in the male medical ward one wintermorning during my first term of night-duty. It wasbetween 2 and 3 A.M., and all the patients were asleep.I had done my share of the ward mending, and wasreading a book on psychic research. It was a record ofscientific investigation, not in the least spooky, and Iwas not apprehensive. The book was resting on anempty emergency bed-it was war-time-leaving myhands free. I was suddenly aware of a buzzing in myears and a sensation of unpleasantness. Because of whatI had been reading, I thought at first that this sensationwas caused by some agency trying to get through to me-perhaps in order to give some message. I revolted atthe idea-no-one was going to use me as a mediumagainst my will, and I tried to get up out of my chair.I could not move. I was completely paralysed. I washorrified at this discovery, and was more than everconvinced that some diabolic agency was trying toinfluence me. My fighting instincts were aroused, and Iwas determined I would not even look at, far less listento, whatever it was ; but of course I could not close myeyes, nor, when I tried to put my hands over them, couldI move my hands either. All this time, I was aware of afeeling of being completely cut off from the world andhumanity. I knew what was going on, but I definitelywas not " of " this world. (In later attacks I never gotused to this ghastly feeling.) I felt I had to speak tosomeone, anyone at all, just to reassure myself. In thenearest bed was a boy, Danny-a heart case. Like therest of the patients, he was asleep, but I felt I had towake him. Contact with humanity had become a para-

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mount necessity. I tried to turn round to call " Danny,"but again I could not move a muscle. After what seemeda long time, but was probably only a few minutes, thebuzzing in my ears stopped, and I was able to get on tomy feet. I did not dare sit down again that night, and Ikept on my feet until it was time to start the morning’swork.

I did not tell anyone of my experience : I thought itwas due to reading occult books at a witching hour ; anddecided I had better revise my night-time reading matter.

* * *

Some weeks later, 1 entered the nurses’ sitting-room inthe middle of a discussion on something called " nightnurse’s paralysis." When one or two nurses went intodetails I realised what had happened to me. The readingof the psychic book was entirely fortuitous, and thesequence of events would have been the same if I hadbeen reading Winnie the Pooh.From that and other discussions, I learned that other

nurses did not seem to have this paralysis as acutely asI did. When they reported their distressing experience,they were promptly taken off night-duty. The usual

symptom is for a nurse to see the night sister glidingup to her, and to find herself unable to rise to her feet, asetiquette demands. I experienced this only once.

I had these attacks fairly often during the rest of mytraining, but hardly ever afterwards. The most acutesensation I experienced was in the gynaecological wardtowards the end of my training. There had been one ortwo operations during the day, and as I sat in the wardnear a radiator I felt the usual buzzing in my ears. Bynow I was used to the paralysis which clamped downimmediately with this aural noise, so I just sat quietlytill it passed. Although I knew the outcome of theseattacks, I never got over the truly horrible feeling of beingcut off from the world of reality. I was aware of sightand sound, as my eyes were always open, and yet I wasas much cut off from my fellow human beings as thoughI had left the world for good.

Suddenly, I heard the voice of one of the operationcases. I had to go to her, as, if need be, she could haveanother injection. With a superhuman effort, I crawledon my hands and knees to her bedside. She spoke to me,but said she was quite comfortable. With greater difficultythan before, I made the return journey to my chair,literally on hands and knees, and with every muscleaching with the strain. It was an immense effort, but inthe background of my mind was the thought that at lastI was beating the paralysis with a great effort of will,and I felt rather triumphant. A little later-I couldnever gauge the duration of the paralysis-I came to.I immediately got to my feet, as always, and went to thewoman’s bedside, to find her sound asleep. Until morningcame, I puzzled over the problem. Had I really left mychair Did the patient speak to me When she wakened,I went over to greet her.

" Good morning, Mrs.... How are you feeling now ? "

" Fine, thank you, nurse. I had a lovely sleep-neverwakened once. I really feel wonderfully comfortable."It was only my imagination that beat the paralysis ;only my imagination that made my muscles ache as theynever have before or since ; only my imagination thatmade that painful, inch-by-inch crawl to the patient’sbedside.

* * *

Looking back, I can honestly say that no given set ofcircumstances seemed to bring on the paralysis. Some-times I felt absolutely fresh and wide-awake when Islipped into this paralytic state ; at other times I was

undoubtedly very tired. What is the explanation of thistemporary incoordination between brain and muscle ? 1Do other night-workers suffer from it ’? All I know isthat it’s the world’s worst sensation to date.

THORA PEACE, S.R.N.THORA PEACE, S.R.N.

In England NowA Running Commentary by Peripatetic CorrespondentsHow agreeable it is when investigations in two

apparently unrelated fields are unexpectedly found toconverge upon a common point.For some time past, my daughter and I have been

conducting a series of readings from the illustrated worksof Edward Lear, and by collating references to theword " runcible " we have thrown light on the meaningof the term. My other daily duties occasionally lead meto contemplate the colonial morphology of the coryne-bacteria, and it is clear that runcible is the exact wordneeded to describe compendiously the smoothly rounded,glistening, black colonies of C. diphtherice mitis. 1 2The runcible spoons used by the Owl and the Pussy Cat for

eating sliced quince,3 and by the Dolomphious Duck forcatching spotted frogs,4 were certainly smooth and shinywhatever their colour. Glossy blackness was the outstandingfeature of the Rural Runcible Raven. 5 The nature of the

poet’s hat is also relevant, for this was specifically describedas being runcible 6 and was drawn by the author as a top-hat.Moreover it is elsewhere stated of papa’s hat that " Outsideit was completely black." 7 The evidence of Lear’s ownillustrations makes it clear that we cannot restrict the termto

" a spoon or fork having three broad tines." 8 Instead, it is

contended that runcible may connote any smoothly rounded,glistening black object.Is it too much to hope that this useful adjective maynow take its place in the English vocabulary of descriptivebacteriology ? 9 "

* * *

The oldest hospital in the world has the least honour.You will find no account of it in the histories of medicine,and the medical directories blandly ignore it : it gets nogrant from the Treasury, and candidates for jobs nevermention the posts they have held there in their appli-cations. But it is often named in this journal, oftenerstill at meetings of the medical societies, and most oftenperhaps on staff rounds and in outpatient departmentswhere they teach. " The diagnosis of carcinoma of thestomach had been confidently made elsewhere, but I atonce noticed the glass eye ..." " The patient had beentreated elsewhere on the Flagg-Pohl regime, which, asyou know, we gave up some years ago ..." Everyoneknows St. Elsewhere’s, where they take no histories,examine patients fully clothed, and always lose thenotes : where they do barium meals on coronary throm-boses and E.C.G.S on ulcers : where they alternate betweenfevered pursuit of the latest American nostrums andblind faith in jalap and Nature : where they treat anuriawith fluids, hepatic coma with protein, and staphylo-coccal infections with penicillin. One virtue alone keepsSt. Elsewhere’s alive. Its incompetent staff, whethertheir deficiencies are the result of youthful inexperienceor senile paralysis, always in the ’end give up theirpitiful attempts to diagnose or treat their patients, andsend those lucky mortals to the only people who candeal with them properly-us.

* * *

This is the time of year when father succumbs to hislatent infatuation with model electric trains. The modernmodels are superb, and their refinements excite mywildest jealousy when I think of the crude treasures ofmy boyhood. I have found myself drifting so often intodaydreams about shunting problems, isolating circuits,and synchronous coupling of points and signals that Ihad begun to worry lest monomania should be roundthe corner.But yesterday our senior lecturer in psychiatry pulled

from his pocket a piece of paper to write down some1. O’Brien, R. A. Recent Advances in Clinical Pathology. London,

1947 ; p. 27.2. Bergey’s Manual of Determinative Bacteriology. London,

1948 ; p. 385.3. Lear, E. The Complete Nonsense. London, 1947, p. 61.4. Ibid, p. 211.5. Ibid, p. 218.6. Ibid, p. vii.7. Ibid, p. 264.8. Funk, C. E. In Funk and Wagnell’s New Standard Dictionary of

the English Language. New York, 1930.9. Topley and Wilson’s Principles of Bacteriology and Immunity.

London, 1946 ; vol. I. p. 364.