A few things I’ve been thinking about this week. The sixteenth post of a series.

It’s not a new observation, but Rob Francis’s recent blog post crystallised some thoughts on the incompatibility of the two great nostalgic laments. It can’t be that life was both globally harder “in the old days,” requiring generations to be more resilient, and yet also globally easier, making a return to those times a noble goal.

I went into a small shop this week and asked for paracetamol. The assistant said they didn’t sell medicines, but offered me a couple out of her own handbag. If she hadn’t been so self-effacing about it, I may have been slightly scared; though in the event, I was just bowled over (though still politely declined).

I’ve been in a time-travelling lift this week.

Wendy and I have been thinking about sang- words this week, and their bloody connections (sanguine, sangfroid, consanguinity, sangria, exsanguinate…)

Various pages from the 1876 Annual Report of the Chief Medical Officer (though then with an older title) have appeared in my “photo memories” this week. I took them when working on the 2012 report.

The report starts with one of the most florid tributes to a predecessor I have ever read. This is Dr Edward Cator Seaton’s first report, having just taken over from the first Chief Medical Officer, Sir John Simon, who held the post for twenty-one years. It concludes:

I am deeply sensible of the disadvantage at which I stand in being called upon to follow Mr. Simon in the continuance of this great work; and the chief hope I have of being able to do this, with even the most moderate degree of success, is derived from the close and intimate association with him I have enjoyed for nearly 20 years in every matter having relation to the Public Health.

It also has brilliant photos of the Crown Glue Works:

Cator Seaton sadly didn’t last long in the role. He died in 1880.

Firearm-related injuries are now the leading cause of death for those aged 1-19 in the USA. I’m never sure where limits on personal freedom should lie in life, but surely this balance can’t be right.