100 YEARS AGO

The current number of the Lancet has a note interesting to the vast army of cyclists. After a “spin” along a more or less dusty road the cyclist sometimes experiences a dry and subsequently sore and inflamed throat. Headache and depression often follow, and the symptoms generally simulate poisoning of some kind. When the bacteriology of road dust is considered, these effects are hardly to be wondered at. ⃛ Indeed, there can be no reason for doubting the infective power of dust when it is known that amongst the microbes encountered in it are the microbes of pus, malignant œdema, tetanus, tubercle, and septicæmia. The mischief to riders as well as to pedestrians would probably be largely averted if, as nature intended, the respirations were rigidly confined to the nasal passages, and the mouth kept comfortably though firmly shut. ⃛ A useful precaution, therefore, in addition to exclusively breathing through the nostrils, would be to douche the nasal cavity, after a dusty run or walk, with a weak and slightly warm solution of some harmless antiseptic.

From Nature 14 July 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

With the progress of chemistry, and particularly of organic chemistry, it became extremely useful to denote certain definite groups of elements which pass from compound to compound apparently as units with special symbols; thus in addition to the symbols of the elements, we have ‘Me’ to represent the methyl group or radical, ‘Ph’ the phenyl group, and so on. Nevertheless, it was unusual to find such abbreviations in the text of chemical books and papers. Even more complicated substances are now being identified, particularly in the field of biochemistry, and with each new compound the urge to find and use abbreviations seems to grow. Adenosine triphosphate soon became ‘ATP’; then there was ‘ADP’ (adenosine diphosphate); many others will come to mind. No one can blame workers in the rush of discovery jotting down abbreviations in their own notes, or even using them in writing down a reaction in symbols. But should they be used in the text of a paper?

From Nature 17 July 1948.