100 YEARS AGO

The season of strawberries is at hand, but doctors are full of fads, and for the most part forbid them to the gouty. Let me put heart into those unfortunate persons to withstand a cruel medical tyranny by quoting the experiences of the great Linnæus. ⃛ in 1750 he was attacked so severely by sciatica that he could hardly make his way home. The pain kept him awake during a whole week. He asked for opium, but a friend dissuaded it. Then his wife suggested “Won't you eat strawberries?” It was the season for them. Linnæus, in the spirit of an experimental philosopher, replied, “tentabo - I will make the trial.” He did so, and quickly fell into a sweet sleep that lasted two hours, and when he awoke the pain had sensibly diminished. He asked whether there were any strawberries left: there were some, and he eat them all. Then he slept till morning. ⃛ What lucrative schemes are suggested by this narrative. Why should gouty persons drink nasty waters, at stuffy foreign Spas, when strawberry gardens abound in England? Let enthusiastic young doctors throw heart and soul into the new system.

From Nature 8 June 1899.

50 YEARS AGO

In November 1948, we found at Swartkrans while excavating a new site in co-operation with the California University Expedition a lower jaw with very large molar teeth. I called it Paranthropus crassidens. Not only did we find the imperfect jaw of a young male with three upper teeth, but also some months later the snout of what appeared to be a female. The upper incisors and canine are typically human. Last month, while I was in America, my assistant, Mr. John T. Robinson, discovered an almost complete huge jaw with most of the teeth. ⃛ The jaw is really enormous — very considerably larger than that of Heidelberg man. The molar teeth are very large, but the canines and incisors remarkably small. Another remarkable feature about the jaw is that it has a rudiment of a chin. The ascending ramus is also very high and large. Mr. Robinson has also got a part of the face with the nearly complete palate. This shows that the face is almost orthognathous. We must, I think, conclude that the brain was very large.

From Nature 11 June 1949.