Peptonize

Peptonize (pronounced pep-tuh-nahyz)

(1) In physiology and biochemistry, to hydrolyse (a protein) to peptones by a proteolytic enzyme, especially by pepsin or pancreatic extract (done usually to aid digestion).

(2) In biochemistry, any water-soluble mixture of polypeptides and amino acids formed by the partial hydrolysis of protein.

(3) To render a text or some other form into something more easily understood (ie a figurative use of the notion of “making more digestible”).

1877: The construct was peptone + ize.  The noun peptone was from the German Pepton, from the Ancient Greek πεπτόν (peptón) (cooked, digested), (neuter of peptos), the verbal adjective of peptein (to cook), from πέπτω (péptō) (soften, ripen, boil, cook, bake, digest); the ultimate root was the primitive Indo-European root pekw (to cook; to ripen).  The –ize suffix was from the Middle English -isen, from the Middle French -iser, from the Medieval Latin -izō, from the Ancient Greek -ίζω (-ízō), from the primitive Indo-European verbal suffix -idyé-.  It was cognate with other verbal suffixes including the Gothic -itjan, the Old High German –izzen and the Old English -ettan (verbal suffix).  It was used to form verbs from nouns or adjectives which (1) make what is denoted by the noun or adjective & (2) do what is denoted by the noun or adjective; the alternative form is –ise.  In British English, alternative spelling is peptonise.  Peptonize, peptonized & peptonizing are verbs, peptonic is an adjective and peptonization & peptonizer are nouns; the most common noun plural is peptonizations.

Peptone was adopted as the general name for a substance into which the nitrogenous elements of food are converted by digestion.  The word entered scientific English in 1860, the German Pepton having first appeared in academic papers in 1849.  Being used in chemistry, a number of derived forms were created as required including antipeptone (a product of gastric and pancreatic digestion, differing from hemipeptone in not being decomposed by the continued action of pancreatic juice), hemipeptone (a product of gastric and pancreatic digestion of albuminous matter, which (unlike antipeptone) is convertible into leucin and tyrosin by the continued action of pancreatic juice; it's formed also from hemialbumose and albumin by boiling dilute sulphuric acid), bactopeptone (a peptone used as a bacterial culture medium) and neopeptone (a commercial mixture of peptones & vitamins), amphopeptone (a product of gastric digestion, a mixture of hemipeptone and antipeptone

Peptides attracted interest some years ago when their use in the performance enhancing drugs (PED) supplied to athletes was publicized.  Peptones and peptides are both derived from proteins but have distinct differences in their structures and properties.  Peptides are short chains of amino acids linked together by peptide bonds and are naturally occurring molecules found in the body and in some foods (hence the interest in their use in PEDs), their biological functions including acting as signaling molecules, hormones, and enzymes.  Under laboratory conditions or during industrial process they can also be derived from the hydrolysis of proteins to be used as therapeutic agents, diagnostic tools, and in many research environments.  Examples of peptides include oxytocin, vasopressin, and insulin.  Peptones are mixtures of amino acids and peptides produced by the partial hydrolysis of proteins and are significantly larger and more complex than peptides.  In the body, they’re produced by the digestion of natural proteins using enzymes or acids and in microbiological culture media are widely used as a source of amino acids and peptides which readily can be utilized by microorganisms for growth and metabolism.  In the industrial production of food, peptones are a common flavor enhancer and examples include tryptone, casitone, and yeast extract.

Mother's other little helper: Peptonized port was once recommended for nursing mothers.

The reason the verb peptonize (and peptonise) is at all known beyond biochemistry & industrial laboratories is the form can by analogy be used to describe the process by which some long or unintelligible document is rendered into something more easily digestible.  In this it differs from “abridge” which describes reducing the size of a document and, strictly speaking, the process should be restricted to removing passages of text which are not essential to the meaning or which intrude on the narrative flow.  Abridgment of novels (of which those published by the Reader’s Digest periodical remain the best-known) have become a popular form and often appear in editions including several of an author’s works.  The Reader's Digest began publication of these anthologies (fiction & nonfiction) in 1950 and originally they marketed by advertisements in the periodical and in mail-order catalogues (which were for 150-odd years a form of distribution which can be considered the B2C (business to consumer) websites of the pre-internet age as “Reader's Digest Condensed Books” before in 1997 being re-branded as “Reader's Digest Select Editions”.  There were some who were rather snobby about the Reader's Digest because it avoided abstractions and wrote for a literate but not necessarily highly educated audience and the news in the 1980s that it was Ronald Reagan’s (1911-2004, US president 1981-1989) preferred periodical reinforced the prejudice although it appears also to have boosted circulation.  More sympathetic critics however have praised the editing of the company’s abridged editions which they in more than one case observed made for a better novel.

Among the more infamous suggested abridgments was that recommended by some critics for Joseph Heller’s (1923-1999) dark satire Catch-22 (1961).  Apparently not enjoying the mental gymnastics demanded by the structure, not only did they suggest one or more chapters should be deleted, the consensus appeared it be it would matter little which chapters were sacrificed in the desired abridgment.  Time has been kinder to the book and few would now suggest deleting anything although the author, like many novelists, discarded much from his early drafts and in 2003 release Catch as Catch Can which included two chapters which never made it to the final draft (the previously published Love, Dad & Yossarian Survives), both of which worked well as short stories which were more viciously condemnatory of the US military than even what appeared in 1961.  Six decades on, it’s difficult to make the case removing a chapter from Catch-22 would in anyway peptonize to work although in at least one literary studies course students were set the task of working out which chapter could be deleted with the fewest consequential changes needing to be imposed on the rest. 

In 1970 however, it became possible to assess what would happen if chunks of the book were deleted because that year a film “version” was released and to produce that, radically the novel was abridged.  Whether it was much peptonized by the process was at least questionable, the phrase in the review by Richard Schickel (1933–2017): “One of our novels is missing” capturing the view of many.  In fairness, given the sprawling scale, there was of course no other way it could be condensed into two hours of screen time and something spread over many viewings, a la Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883) Ring Cycle (1876), would have brought its own problems.  Still, by 2019 technology had made the habits of audiences change and a six-part mini-series was released.  With a total running time over four hours it was still not enough to encompass the whole novel but hardly of a length to intimidate the binge generation and as a piece of entertainment it was well received although the advice of the serious-minded remained the same: read the book.

Lindsay Lohan and her lawyer in court, Los Angeles, December 2011.

Both the film and the book actually went well beyond mere abridgment, verging solidly into what students of the visual forms call “interpretation” or “adaptation” so people can decide whether there was peptonization, simplification or both.  By contrast, a document subjected to a peptonization may be rendered shorter, longer or even transformed into a different format.  The genre known as “popular” (“popular science” and “popular history” the best known) often contain elements from technical or academic works which are re-written into a form more easily comprehended by readers without background in the specialization and is a classic form of peptonization.  Once can also exist as an adjunct document which accompanies the substantive text: an explanatory memorandum and an executive summary are both examples and even the abstract which sits as a header can fulfil the function and all three probably are valued by many because they obviate any need to read something which may be tiresomely and often needlessly long.  That may have been what Lord Salisbury (1893-1972) had in mind when in 1952 he remarked of the idea “…budget proposals could be simplified and summarized a little before being shown to the prime-minister.”: “Of course, I don’t know how far they are peptonized already.”  Even then, such use was rare (certainly outside the House of Lords) and now the meaning functionally be extinct.

Approved by His Majesty's Home Secretary.

In England in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, peptonised milk was part of the treatment regimes used in the force-feeding of patients in lunatic asylums, suffragettes on hunger strike those afflicted by Anorexia Nervosa (then still often called Anorexia Hysterica).  The method didn’t long endure in dealing with the bolshie proto-feminists because the public reaction was such the Home Office usually relented.  It remained often used for the anorexics and it presumably enjoyed some success but in 1895 The Lancet (a weekly medical journal first published in 1823) reported a fatal case: “The patient refused food so ‘was fed an enemata of peptonised milk, beef tea and brandy.  This was carried out for two to three days and in ten days she could take a moderate diet by the mouth, but suffered from diarrhoea.  On the thirteenth day after admission she rapidly became worse, the temperature rose to 102°F, and on the fifteenth day she died.”

Supine

Supine (pronounced soo-pahyn)

(1) Lying on the back, face or front upward.

(2) Inactive, passive, or inert, especially from indolence or indifference; displaying no interest or animation; lethargic, apathetic or passive towards something.

(3) Being reluctant to take action due to indifference or moral weakness

(4) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping (now probably obsolete except for poetic or historic use).

(5) Of the hand, forearm or foot, turned facing toward the body or upward: with the thumb outward (palm up), or with the big toe raised relative to the little toe.

(6) A technical rule in Latin; a noun form derived from verbs, appearing only in the accusative and the dative-ablative.  Often used to express purpose with verbs of motion

(7) A technical rule in English; the simple infinitive of a verb preceded by to.

(8) A descriptor (in English) for an analogous form in some other language.

(9) Inclining or leaning backward; inclined, sloping (now rare and used only as a literary or poetic device).

1490-1500: From the Latin supīnus (bent backwards, thrown backwards, lying on the back (and figuratively "inactive, indolent"), ultimately from the primitive Indo-European sup & up.  It was cognate with the Catalan supí, the Italian supino (on one's back), the Old French sovin, the Middle French souvin, supin & supin, the Anglo-Norman supin (which persists in modern French as supin), the Old Occitan sobin & sopin, the Portuguese supino and the Spanish supino.  The verb supinate dates from 1831 in the sense of "to place the hand so that the palm is turned upward" and was from the Latin supinatus, past participle of supinare (to bend back) and related to supinus (the related forms being supinated, supinating & supinators.  The adjective was from the Latin supīnus, the construct being sup- (in the sense of “under”) + -īnus (of or pertaining to).  The noun came later, from the Late Middle English supin (as in “supine of a Latin verb”) or the Middle French supin ((grammar) supine) all from the Latin supīnum (short for supīnum verbum (supine verb)) from supīnus.  It partially displaced the Old English upweard (upward, supine), from which Modern English gained "upward".  The now rarely used sense of "morally or mentally inert, negligent, listless, heedless" was in use in English by the early seventeenth century and the noun supinity is used in this context.  Supine is a noun & adjective, supination, supinator, supinity & supineness are nouns, supinate is a verb, supinated is a verb & adjective and supinely is an adverb; the noun plural is supines.

Lindsay Lohan supine from a photo-shoot by Terry Richardson (b 1965) for Love Magazine (2012).

The technical rule in Latin grammar: "the verbal noun formed from the past participle stem" is from the Late Latin supinum verbum (supine verb), the origin of which is undocumented but thought so called because, though furnished with a noun case ending, it "falls back" on the verb.  In Latin grammar, supine is best thought of as a practice rather than a rule and it’s observed rather than understood or applied.  The verbal noun is used in only a few syntactic constructions and occurs in only two cases, an accusative in -tum or -sum and an ablative in -tū or –sū although the accusative form is sometimes listed by scholars as the fourth principal part of the Latin verb, a fine distinction only they understand.

Although there was a war going on, the misuse of "supine" and "prone" (by fellow  physicians!) so disturbed Dr Edwin H Shepard MD of Syracuse, NY he wrote a letter to the editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) which was published in the edition of 27 May 1944.  Eighty years on, Very Well Health advises doctors the trick to remember the difference between supine and prone is: "supine contains the word "up", reminding you you are face up in this position while prone contains the word "on" which you can use to remember you are lying on your face or stomach."

So, strictly speaking, "supine" means lying face upwards while the words for lying face downwards are "prostrate" or "prone" but these have long been used loosely (probably increasingly so) for lying flat in any position.  Thus, the antonym correctly is "nonsupine" (or "non-supine") but "prone" is sometimes used, doubtlessly leaving many baffled, including, clearly, some physicians.  The synonym resupine is rare and may be functionally extinct.

Hypnopompic

Hypnopompic (pronounced hip-nuh-pom-pik)

Of or relating to the state of consciousness between sleep and becoming fully awake.

1897: The construct was hypno-, from the Ancient Greek ὕπνος (húpnos) (sleep) + the Ancient Greek πομπή (pomp(ḗ)), (a sending away) +‎ -ic.  The -ic suffix was from the Middle English -ik, from the Old French -ique, from the Latin -icus, from the primitive Indo-European -kos & -ḱos, formed with the i-stem suffix -i- and the adjectival suffix -kos & -ḱos.  The form existed also in the Ancient Greek as -ικός (-ikós), in Sanskrit as -इक (-ika) and the Old Church Slavonic as -ъкъ (-ŭkŭ); a doublet of -y.  In European languages, adding -kos to noun stems carried the meaning "characteristic of, like, typical, pertaining to" while on adjectival stems it acted emphatically; in English it's always been used to form adjectives from nouns with the meaning “of or pertaining to”.  A precise technical use exists in physical chemistry where it's used to denote certain chemical compounds in which a specified chemical element has a higher oxidation number than in the equivalent compound whose name ends in the suffix -ous; (eg sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) has more oxygen atoms per molecule than sulphurous acid (H₂SO₃).  The word was coined in the sense of “pertaining to the state of consciousness when awaking from sleep” by Frederic WH Myers (1843-1901), the construct being from hypno- (sleep) + the second element from the Greek pompe (sending away) from pempein (to send).  The word was introduced in Glossary of Terms used in Psychical Research, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xii (1896-1897 supplement), an organization founded by Myers.  Hypnopompic & hypnopompia were thought to be necessary as companion (in the sense of “bookend”) terms to hypnagogic & hypnagogia (Illusions hypnagogiques) which are the “vivid illusions of sight or sound (sometimes referred to as “faces in the dark”) which sometimes accompany the prelude to the onset of sleep.  Hypnopompic is an adjective and hypnopompia is a noun; the noun plural is hypnopompias.

Frederic Myers was a philologist with a great interest in psychical matters, both the orthodox science and aspects like the work of mediums who would “contact the spirits of the dead”, the latter, while not enjoying much support in the scientific establishment, was both taken seriously and practiced by a remarkable vista of “respectable society”.  Mediums enjoyed a burst in popularity in the years immediately after World War I (1914-1918) when there was much desire by grieving wives & mothers to contact dead husbands and sons and some surprising figures clung to beliefs in such things well into the twentieth century.  In the early 1960s, a reunion of surviving pilots from the Battle of Britain (1940) was startled when their wartime leader and former head of Royal Air Force (RAF) Fighter Command, Hugh Dowding (1882–1970), told them: “regularly he communicated with the spirits of their fallen comrades”.  Myers also had what might now be called a “varied” love life although it’s said in his later life his interest was restricted to women, including a number of mediums, all reputed to be “most fetching”.

In the profession, while acknowledging the potential usefulness in things like note-taking in a clinical environment, few psychologists & psychiatrists appear to regard hypnopompia & hypnagogia as separate phenomena, both understood as the imagery, sounds and strange bodily feelings sometimes felt when in that state between sleep and being fully awake.  In recent years, as the very definition of “sleep” has increasingly been segmented, the state in some literature has also been referred to both as “stage 1 sleep” & “quiet wakefulness” although the former would seem to be most applicable to falling asleep (hypnagogia) rather than waking up (hypnopompia).  Still, the distinction between what’s usually a late night versus an early morning thing does seem of some significance, especially that most in the discipline of the science of sleep (now quite an industry) seem to concede wake-sleep & sleep-wake transitions are not fully understood; nor are the associated visual experiences and debate continues about the extent to which they should (or can) be differentiated from other dream-states associated with deeper sleep.

Waking in a hypnopompic state: Lindsay Lohan in Falling for Christmas (Netflix, 2022).

One striking finding is that so few remember hypnopompic & hypnagogic imagery and that applies even among those who otherwise have some ability to recall their dreams.  What’s often reported by subjects or patients is the memory is fleeting and difficult to estimate in duration and that while the memory is often sustained for a short period after “waking”, quickly it vanishes.  An inability to recall one’s dreams in not unusual but this behavior is noted also for those with a sound recollection of the dreams enjoyed during deeper sleep states.  What seems to endure is a conceptual sense of what has been “seen”: faces known & unknown, fragmentary snatches of light and multi-dimensional geometric shapes.  While subjects report they “know” they have “seen” (and also “heard”) more fully-developed scenes, their form, nature or even the predominate colors prove usually elusive.  Despite all this, it’s not uncommon for people to remark the hypnopompic experience is “pleasant”, especially the frequently cited instances of floating, flying or even a separation from the physical body, something which seems more often called “trippy” than “scary”.

For some however, the hypnopompic & hypnagogic experience can be recalled, haunting the memory and the speculation is that if “nightmarish” rather than “dream-like”, recollection is more likely, especially if associated with “paralyzed hypnogogia or hypnopompia” in which a subject perceives themselves “frozen”, unable to move or speak while the experience persists (for centuries a reported theme in “nightmares).  Observational studies are difficult to perform to determine the length of these events but some work in neurological monitoring seems to suggest what a patient perceives as lasting some minutes may be active for only seconds, the implication being a long “real-time” experience can be manufactured in the brain in a much shorter time and the distress can clinically be significant.  For this reason, the American Psychiatric Association's (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) regards hypnagogia & hypnopompia as something similar to synaesthesia (where a particular sensory stimulus triggers a second kind of sensation; things like letters being associated with colors) or certain sexual fetishes (which were once classified as mental disorders) in that they’re something which requires a diagnosis and treatment only if the condition is troubling for the patient.  In the fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-5 (2013)), hypnagogia anxiety was characterized by intense anxiety symptoms during this state, disturbing sleep and causing distress; it’s categorized with sleep-related anxiety disorders.

The Nightmare (1781), oil on canvas by the Swiss-English painter John Henry Fuseli (1741-1825), Detroit Institute of Arts.  It's a popular image to use to illustrate something "nightmare related".

When the political activist Max Eastman (1883–1969) visited Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)in Vienna in 1926, he observed a print of Fuseli's The Nightmare, hung next to Rembrandt's  (Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn; 1606-1669) The Anatomy Lesson.  Although well known for his work on dream analysis (although it’s the self-help industry more than the neo-Freudians who have filled the book-shelves), Freud never mentions Fuseli's famous painting in his writings but it has been used by others in books and papers on the subject.  The speculation is Freud liked the work (clearly, sometimes, a painting is just a painting) but nightmares weren’t part of the intellectual framework he developed for psychoanalysis which suggested dreams (apparently of all types) were expressions of wish fulfilments while nightmares represented the superego’s desire to be punished; later he would refine this with the theory a traumatic nightmare was a manifestation of “repetition compulsion”.

Muffler & Scarf

Muffler (pronounced muhf-ler)

(1) A scarf worn around one's neck for warmth.

(2) Any of various devices for deadening the sound (especially the tubular device containing baffle plates in the exhaust system of a motor vehicle) of escaping gases of an internal-combustion engine; also known as silencers.

(3) Anything used for muffling sound.

(4) In armor, a mitten-like glove worn with a mail hauberk.

(5) A boxing glove (archaic).

(6) A slang term for a kiln or furnace, often electric, with no direct flames (technically a muffle furnace)

(7) A piece of warm clothing for the hands.

(8) The bare end of the nose between the nostrils, especially in ruminants.

(9) A machine with two pulleys to hoist load by spinning wheels, a polyspast (from the Latin polyspaston (hoisting-tackle with many pulleys), from the Ancient Greek πολύσπαστον (polúspaston) (compound pulley); a block and tackle.

(10) In World War I (1914-1918) soldier's slang, a gas-mask (some listings of military slang note it a "rare").

(11) An alternative term for the silencer (or suppressor) sometimes fitted to a gun (usually illicitly).

1525–1535: A compound word, the construct being muffl(e) + -er.  Muffle was from the Middle English muflen (to muffle), an aphetic alteration of the Anglo-Norman amoufler, from the Old French enmoufler (to wrap up, muffle), from moufle (mitten), from the Medieval Latin muffula (a muff), of Germanic origin (first recorded in the Capitulary of Aachen in 817 AD), from the Frankish muffël (a muff, wrap, envelope) from mauwa (sleeve, wrap) (from the Proto-Germanic mawwō (sleeve)) + vël (skin, hide) (from the Proto-Germanic fellą (skin, film, fleece)).  An alternate etymology traces the Medieval Latin word to the Frankish molfell (soft garment made of hide) from mol (softened, worn), (akin to the Old High German molawēn (to soften)) and the Middle High German molwic (soft), (mulch in English) + fell (hide, skin).  The suffix –er was from the Middle English –er & -ere, from the Old English -ere (agent suffix), from the Proto-Germanic -ārijaz (agent suffix).  Usually thought to have been borrowed from Latin –ārius, it was cognate with the Dutch -er and -aar, the Low German -er, the German -er, the Swedish -are, the Icelandic –ari and the Gothic -areis.  It was related to the Ancient Greek -ήριος (-ḗrios) and Old Church Slavonic -арь (-arĭ).  In English, it was reinforced by the synonymous but unrelated Old French –or & -eor (Anglo-Norman variant -our), from the Latin -(ā)tor, from the primitive Indo-European -tōr.  Muffler is a noun and mufflerless, unmufflered, demufflered & mufflered are adjectives; the noun plural is mufflers.

Scarf (pronounced skahrf)

(1) A long, broad strip of wool, silk, lace, or other material worn about the neck, shoulders, or head, for ornament or protection against cold, drafts etc.; a muffler.

(2) A necktie or cravat with hanging ends (archaic).

(3) A long cover or ornamental cloth for a bureau, table etc (rare).

(4) To cover or wrap with or as if with a scarf or to use in the manner of a scarf (verb).

(5) In carpentry, a tapered or otherwise-formed end on each of the pieces to be assembled with a scarf joint scarf joint (a lapped joint between two pieces of timber made by notching or grooving the ends and strapping, bolting, or gluing the two pieces together).

(6) In whaling, a strip of skin along the body of the whale, a groove made to remove the blubber and skin.

(7) In steelmaking, to burn away the surface defects of newly rolled steel.

(8) To eat, especially voraciously (often followed by down or up).

1545–1455: From the Old Norse skarfr (end cut from a beam), from skera (to cut) .  The sense of a scarf being a piece of material cut from a larger piece is actually based on the use in carpentry, linked to the Swedish skarf & the Norwegian skarv (patch) and the Low German and Dutch scherf (scarf).  The sense of eating quickly is a now almost extinct Americanism from 1955-1960, thought a variant of scoff, with r inserted probably through r-dialect speakers' mistaking the underlying vowel as an r-less ar.  Etymologists have suggested other lineages such as a link with the Old Norman French escarpe and the Medieval Latin scrippum (pilgrim's pack) but the alternatives have never attracted much support.  Scarf is a noun & verb and scarfie is a noun; the noun plural is scarves or scarfs.  There is no established convention (and certainly no rule) about which plural form is "correct" when referring to the neckwear so all that can be recommended is consistency.  In practice, "scarves" seems more commonly used of the clothing while "scarfs" must always be the spelling in the context of carpentry.    

Lindsay Lohan with Louis Vuitton Sprouse Roses Long Scarf.

Until well into the twentieth century, muffler and scarf were used interchangeably but as the vocabulary associated with motor vehicles became commonplace, "muffler" became increasingly associated with the baffled mechanical device used to reduce the noise emanating from exhaust systems.  The automotive use swamped the linguistic space and muffler became less associated with the neck accessory although it never wholly went away and the upper reaches of the fashion industry maintain the distinction and it of course remains a staple in literary fiction.  Historically, of the garments, muffler was mostly British in use (Americans long preferring scarf) but scarf is now globally the most common form.  One geographically specific use was the "scarfie", a New Zealand slang form which began as a reference to a student at the University of Otago, based on the association with the signature blue-and-yellow scarf said habitually to be worn to signify allegiance to the provincial rugby union team (the Otago Rugby Football Union).  New Zealanders sometime in the mid-twentieth century abandoned mainstream religion and substituted worship of rugby and this was said to be something practiced with the greatest intensity at the University of Otago, the sense of group identity thought to have been reinforced by the country's only medical school having been located there for many decades.  The other great cultural contribution to Western culture was their part in the history of the "chunder mile". 

University of Otago Medical School.

The now-banned chunder mile was similiar in concept to the various "beer miles" still contested in some places, “chunder” being circa 1950s Australia & New Zealand slang for vomiting and of disputed origin.  The rules were simple enough, contestants being required to eat a (cold) meat pie, enjoyed with a jug of (un-chilled) beer (a jug typically 1140 ml (38.5 fl oz (US)) at the start of each of the four ¼ mile laps and, predictably, the event was staged during the university's orientation week.  Presumably, it was helpful that at the time the place was the site of the country’s medical school, thereby providing students with practical experience of both symptoms and treatments for the inevitable consequences.  Whether the event was invented in Dunedin isn’t known but, given the nature of males aged 17-21 probably hasn’t much changed over the millennia, it wouldn’t be surprising to learn similar competitions, localized to suit culinary tastes, have been contested by the drunken youth of many places in centuries past.  As it was, even in Dunedin, times were changing and in 1972, the Chunder Mile was banned “…because of the dangers of asphyxiation and ruptured esophaguses.”

Lindsay Lohan with Burberry scarf.  Made with a heavier fabric this would once have been called a muffler (as Vogue magazine et al still does).

Although not universal (especially in the US), in the better magazines, fashion editors still like to draw a distinction between the two, a scarf defined as an accessory to enhance the look and made from fabrics like silk, cotton or linen whereas a muffler is more utilitarian, bulkier and intended to protect from the cold and thus made from wool, mohair or something good at retaining body-heat.  That doesn't imply that inherently a muffler is associated with cheapness, the fashion houses able to see a market for a high-priced anything.  Occasionally, muffler is used in commerce as a label of something which looks like a small blanket, worn over the shoulders and resembling an open poncho.  They're said to offer great warmth.

So, scarves and mufflers are both accessories worn around the neck for either or both warmth and style but with historic differences in construction, size & shape, those differences no longer of the same significance because the term “muffler” has become a niche and “scarf” tends to prevail for most purposes.  However, for those who enjoy pedantry (or aspire to edit Vogue), the old conventions can be summarized thus:

Scarfs are usually rectangular or square in shape and available in many sizes and are made for a variety of materials including wool, silk, cotton or synthetic fabrics. They can be woven, knitted, or printed with patterns or designs.  Scarves generally are long and narrow compared to mufflers and can be worn in many styles, the most popular including draped around the neck, wrapped, or knotted.  Now often adopted as a fashion accessories to complement outfits or add a splash of color or texture, the seasonal choice will be dictated usually by temperature because, depending on material and thickness, a scarf can be as warming as a traditional muffler.

Mufflers are also long pieces of fabric, but they tend to be wider and thicker than the traditional, more decorative, scarves.  Being bulkier and there for warmth, mufflers are often knitted or crocheted and may have a more substantial texture to enhance the thermal properties.  The design of a muffler succeeds or fails on the basis of (1) the protection against the elements afforded and (2) the ease with which it snugly will wrap around the neck.  Inherently that means they don’t always offer the same versatility in styling offered by scarves but because the surface area is large, a sympathetic choice of colors or patterns offers interesting possibilities.  Strangely perhaps (and an indication of the way use has shifted), the neckwear worn by supporters of football clubs and such, although they are, in the conventional sense, mufflers, are always describes as scarfs although, in places like Cardiff Arms Park on a cold winter day, those with one wrapped around will be grateful for the warmth.

Avoiding the muffler

An electrically controlled exhaust system "cut-out", the modern version of the old, mechanical, "by-passes".

On cars, trucks and other vehicles with internal combustion engines (ICE) which generate their power by the noisy business of detonating hydrocarbons, mufflers are valued by most people because they make things much quieter.  That's almost always good although in the right place, at the right time, the unmuffled sound of a BRM V16 at 12,000 rpm remains one of the great experiences of things mechanical and on the road, a well-designed chosen combination of engine and muffler can produce a pleasing exhaust note, witness the Daimler V8s of the 1960s.  The BRM, like most racing cars in the era, was unmuffled because there's a price to be paid for quietness and that price is power, the addition to the exhaust system robbing ICE of efficiency.  To try to have the best of both worlds (and seem to comply with the law), some inventive types use "outlaw" (or "special") pipes which work by offering exhaust gasses a "shortcut" to the atmosphere.  In ICEs, there are both down-pipes and dump-pipes.  Their functions differ and the term down-pipe is a little misleading because some down-pipes (especially on static engines) actually are installed in a sideways or upwards direction but in automotive use, most do tend downwards.  A down-pipe connects the exhaust manifold to exhaust system components beyond, leading typically to first a catalytic converter and then a muffler (silencer), most factory installations designed deliberately to be restrictive in order to comply with modern regulations limiting emissions and noise.  After-market down-pipes tend to be larger in diameter and are made with fewer bends improving exhaust gas flow, reducing back-pressure and (hopefully) increasing horsepower and torque.   Such modifications are popular but not necessarily lawful.  Technically, a dump-pipe is a subset of the down-pipes and is most associated with engines using forced aspiration (turbo- & some forms of supercharging).  With forced-induction, exhaust gases exiting the manifold spin a turbine (turbocharger) or drive a compressor (supercharger) to force more of the fuel-air mixture into the combustion chambers, thereby increasing power.  What a dump-pipe does is provide a rapid, short-path exit for exhaust gases to be expelled directly into the atmosphere before reaching a down-pipe.  That obviously avoids the muffler, making for more power and noise, desirable attributes for the target market.  A dump pipe is thus an exit or gate from the exhaust system which can be opened manually, electronically, or with a “blow-off” valve which opens when pressure reaches a certain level.  In the happy (though more polluted) days when regulations were few, the same thing was achieved with an exhaust “by-pass” or “cut-out” which was a mechanical gate in the down-pipe and even then such things were almost always unlawful but it was a more tolerant time.  Such devices, lawful and otherwise, are still installed.

Corona

Corona (pronounced kuh-roh-nuh)

(1) A white or colored circle or set of concentric circles of light seen around a luminous body.

(2) In meteorology, such a circle or set of circles having a small radius and ranging in color from blue inside to red outside, attributable to the diffraction caused by thin clouds, mist, or sometimes dust (distinguished from halo).

(3) In solar astronomy, a faintly luminous envelope outside of the sun's chromosphere, the inner part consisting of highly ionized elements; also called aureola & aureole.

(4) A long, straight, un-tapered cigar, rounded at the closed end.

(5) In botany, a crown-like appendage, especially one on the inner side of a corolla, as in the narcissus.

(6) In anatomy, the upper portion or crown of a part, as of the head.

(7) In architecture, the projecting, slab-like member of a classical cornice supported by the bed molding or by modillions, dentils, etc., and supporting the cymatium.

(8) The tonsure of a monk or other cleric.

(9) In ecclesiastical dress, a gold-colored stripe around the lower edge of a clerical headdress, as of a miter.

(10) A chandelier of wrought metal, having the form of one or more concentric hoops.

(11) In zoology, the head or upper surface of an animal, such as the body of an echinoid or the disc and arms of a crinoid.

(12) As Coronaviruses, a group of viruses which infect mammals and birds.  In humans, they cause usually mild (including 229E, the common cold) respiratory infections but forms such as SARS, MERS the famous COVID-19 can be lethal.

1555–1565: From the Latin corōna (garland, crown) from the Ancient Greek κορώνη (korṓnē or korōnis (crown, any curved object)), akin to korōnís (wreath; curved, beaked) & kórax (crow; raven); related was the Latin curvus (curved).  A doublet of crown, the plural forms are coronas & coronae.

COVID-19 and Coca-Cola

COVID-19 (an abbreviation of coronavirus disease 2019) was the name of the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.  The name was adopted in February 2020, chosen by the World Health Organization (WHO) in partnership with the Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses; until then, variously it had been called 2019-nCoV, Novel coronavirus or Wuhan coronavirus.  SARS-CoV-2 is related to MERS-CoV (which causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS)) and SARS-CoV (which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)).

The Sun and its corona (left) and a depiction of the SARS-CoV-2 virus (bottom).

The class to which these viruses belong is called corona because, when viewed under an electron microscope, there’s a resemblance to the crown-like corona (the halo or ring of fire) around the Sun, seem when viewed through an appropriate telescope or other device.  The corona around the sun has long been known but viruses have been seen only since the development of the electron microscope because human viruses are very small, typically 100 nanometers (1 metre = 1,000 mm = 1,000,000 micrometres = 1,000,000,000 nanometres).  In the evolutionary timeline of life on earth, it's believed bacteria emerged quite some time before viruses.  Bacteria appear to have been one of the earliest forms of life and, because no evidence of life has yet been detected anywhere else in the universe, they're perhaps among the oldest anywhere.  Single-celled organisms with a relatively simple structure and capable of independent reproduction, bacteria are thought to have appeared some 3.5 to 3.8 billion years ago (the Earth dating back 4.5 billion) and the evidence suggests the viruses emerged 2-3 billions years ago.  Unlike bacteria, viruses are not considered living organisms in the traditional sense because they cannot carry out metabolic processes or reproduce on their own; instead, they are genetic material (DNA or RNA) enclosed in a protein coat.

As far as is known, all life forms now extant (and all extinct forms known) are descended ultimately from the one initial instance; life started once which means humans are related to cats, dogs, trees & bananas as well as to bacteria & viruses.  That makes people, bacteria and just about everything else vulnerable to infection by one virus or another, the consequences ranging from nothing to death but the behavior can also be used to advantage and a certain class of virus, the bacteriophage, after a long period of neglect during the antibiotic era, is attracting new interest.

Some viruses can be helpful: A depiction of bacteriophages phaging.

Not all viruses are bad like SARS-CoV-2.  A bacteriophage, known almost always as a phage, is a virus which infects and replicates within bacteria.  Phages are composites of proteins that surround a DNA or RNA genome and may encode any number of genes from a handful to many hundreds.  Phages replicate within the bacterium following the injection of their genome into the target cytoplasm.  Phages exist naturally in the environment and are among the most common and diverse entities on earth.  Serious research began in several parts of Europe during the late nineteenth century and have been used for almost a century as anti-bacterial agents the former USSR and Central Europe.  In the West, phage therapy (using specific viruses to fight difficult bacterial infections) has been of interest for some time, attention heightened as the problem of antibiotic-resistant bacteria (superbugs in the popular imagination) began to grow in severity (the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) attributes one death every 15 minutes in the US to superbugs).  Since the discovery of penicillin, antibiotics have been used as a reliable cure for those suffering from once lethal bacterial infections but, over decades, a handful (compared with the trillions and trillions killed) of bacteria have proved resistant to antibiotics and as these survivors multiply, new infections emerge.  Historically this had prompted the development of revised or new antibiotics but the biological arms race has reached the point where some infections caused by called antibiotic resistant bacteria cannot be treated and for many other serious infections, the number of potent “last resort” antibiotics is dwindling.

Hence the interest in phages, a type of “friendly virus” which can be weaponized to fight even the most virulent and persistent bacterial infections.  Phages work as well as they do because viruses like the tiresome SARS-Cov-2 that makes humans sick, phages can infect only bacteria and are selective about which they target, a vital aspect of their role in medicine because human survival depends on the billions of bacteria in our bodies.  These phages are far from rare, existing in the natural environment almost everywhere on the planet and scientists conducting research find dirty waterways or damp, aerated, warm, decaying soil (both areas where high bacterial growth might be expected) are good places to collect samples.  The advantages phages offer are well known but there are also drawbacks and indeed some of the features of phages manifest as both.  For example, the great specificity of phages helpful in that they can be administered safely with the knowledge that no other organisms will be harmed but this can be a practical disadvantage in clinical medicine when it’s not known exactly which bacteria need to be targeted, which is why broad-spectrum antibiotics proved so effective at scale.  Being wholly natural, the shelf-life of phages is highly variable and there’s little experience in their administration beyond some communities in Eastern Europe where they’ve been part of medical practice for over a century.  Additionally, bacteria can develop resistance even to phages and one practical impediment to deployment not well recognized until recent years is that compared to chemical molecules, phages are quite big and there are sites in the human body which will be inaccessible.

Electron micrograph of a Coronaviruses in colorized and in grey-scale.

The images captured from electron microscopes are always in black-and-white but are often artificially colored in the post-production process for better visualization and to assist with analysis.  Because of the resolution limit of the optical microscope, even at the highest magnification, viruses couldn’t be seen because their size meant they lay beyond the spectrum of visible light, the range of resolution being limited by the wavelength of the visible light that illuminates the specimen.  It was the resolution of the electron microscope, developed in the early 1930s, and able to offer an illumination with a wavelength much smaller than visible light which first made viruses visible.  An electron has the properties both of a particle and a wave so an electron’s wavelength is determined by its energy (or speed).  If an electron is accelerated to a speed of a million meters per second (circa 2.2 million mph (3.5 million km/h)) the physical wavelength is around one-tenth of a nanometer or about the size of an atom.  This permits an electron microscope to probe the structure of atoms in a crystal and thus see viruses.

Lindsay Lohan taking a 330ml lunch.

In February 2021, at a time when the official number of people with COVID-19 was around 107 million, mathematicians calculated all the COVID-19 causing SARS-COV-2 virus then circulating the planet easily would fit in a single (330ml) Coca-Cola can.  Using a model based on the viral load per currently infected victim (which varies during the duration of the infection), it was estimated there were at the time around two-hundred quadrillion (200 million billion or 2x10¹⁷). SARS-CoV-2 virus particles in the world.  Using that number, knowing the size of the virus, it was possible to calculate the total volume and even after accounting for the distinctive projecting spike proteins meaning the spherical particles will leave gaps when stacked together, the total is still less than the internal volume of the 330 millilitre can.

Two-hundred quadrillion is a really big number, there are said to be about that many grains of sand on the planet, but Sars-CoV-2 particles are really small, around a hundred nanometres (one nanometre is a billionth of a meter) so the radius of Sars-CoV-2 is roughly a thousand times thinner than a human hair.  The mathematicians multiplied the numbers, worked out the wastage of space caused by the troublesome spikes accounted for about a quarter of the total volume and concluded that in February 2021, the volume of SARS-CoV-2 in the world was 160 millilitres.  By mid-2021, cases had almost doubled so by then, either the can would be full or, given the margin of error associated with such calculations, a second can might be required.  The caveat to all this is that the math is based on the official number of infected people and nobody knows what the real is although all agree it will be higher but by what factor is guesswork, reliable data just not available to build a model.  Guesses have been proffered ranged from double to twenty times higher.  Depending on which of those is closest, a six-pack or a carton of cans might be filled.

Rare collector’s item: Lindsay Lohan MH Corona Extra tobacco card #480: US$5.00 on eBay.  Unrelated to this card is the specification of the corona cigars, straight-shaped cigars with rounded tops (the end taken to the lips) and defined by length: a corona about 5½ inches (140 mm) long; a petit corona (or corona chica) about 5 inches (125 mm) long, a tres petit corona about 4½ inches (115 mm) long & a half corona about 3¾ (95 mm) inches long.

The Toyota (Corona) 1600GT

1958 Toyota Corona "Van".

It was the Toyota Corona (1957-2001) which not only established the company in the vital US market but lent respectability to the very idea of the “Japanese car”, that term in the early 1960s not the by-word for quality and reliability it would in subsequent decades become.  Noting the success of the small (by US standards) Volkswagen Beetle and other imports, the company shipped a small number of Coronas to the US in the late 1950s but they were unsuitable for the environment (as indeed were a number of the diminutive European models which lacked the ruggedness of the VW) and interest was minimal, the Corona withdrawn from sale in 1960 although unsold models lingered on the lots for another year.

1966 "shovel-nose" Toyota Corona.

It was the third generation Corona, launched in September 1964 in an array of body styles, which was the Toyota passenger car to achieve international success, including in the US.  It was a thoroughly conventional design (ie mechanically a scaled down US sedan) with a body which was modern, inoffensive and practical although some thought the reverse-slanted nose strange.  It came to be nick-named the “shovel-nose” and proved ahead of its time, adopted in 1972 by Lancia for the Beta and in 1976 it appeared on Ford’s Escort RS2000 before variations of the shape eventually became the default for manufacturers seeking to eke out as much aerodynamic efficiency as possible.

The "shovel-nose" caught on: 1972 Lancia Beta (left) & 1976 Ford Escort RS2000 (right).  

The export range appeared in volume but the most desirable models were reserved for the JDM (Japanese domestic market), a long-standing, industry-wide practice which has had the effect of creating a minor export business for those who can satisfy the demand in markets like Australia, New Zealand & North America for the high-performance versions which have something of a cult-following.  The 1967 1600GT (or GT-5 for those with the optional five-speed gearbox) coupé (for this JDM “halo” model the Corona badge wasn’t used) was modest compared with some of the wild machinery which would appear in subsequent decades but by the standards of its time, there was some genuine sophistication.  The body was the standard two-door hardtop but the centrepiece was a double overhead camshaft (DOHC) cylinder head atop the 1600 cm³ four cylinder engine, the head designed by Yamaha which had also developed the one used on the straight-six in the exotic Toyota 2000 GT sports car made famous by the appearance of a custom built roadster version in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967).

1967 Toyota 2000GT roadster.  Two 2000GT coupés were converted into roadsters for You Only Live Twice (one used for filming, the other a "back-up"), the work undertaken by Toyota’s special Toyopet Service Centre in Tsunashima.  The wire wheels were exclusive to the roadsters (15×5 inch magnesium wheels were used on the coupés) and the pair were very much movie props, neither vehicle fitted with side windows or a soft-top.  The "back-up car" is now on display in the Toyota Automobile Museum.

Known internally as the 9R, the 1600GT engine took a traditionally English approach to increasing power: twin carburetors, big valves and a high-compression ratio, the combination yielding a then impressive 110 horsepower at 6200rpm, the latter number something to note given the crankshaft was supported by only three main bearings.  Still, being a Toyota engine, reliability was solid and no history of bottom-end failure emerged; whether the unusual firing order (1243) had anything to do with this seems not to be discussed anywhere.  To cope with the new-found power, the Corona’s suspension was strengthened with re-calibrated springs and dampers along with two torque rods to locate the back axle.  That improved things but the Japanese manufacturers, although matching the Europeans in power, still had some way to go in achieving their dynamics; the 1600 GT was no cut-price Alfa Romeo.  It was though very well equipped, another lesson Toyota and other Japanese factories would (painfully) teach the West.  Always a low volume model, production of 1600 GTs totalled 2222, the last built late in 1968.

1967 Toyota 1600GT.  They were available also in red and white.

1974 Toyota Corona advertising.

The 1600GT's cult following notwithstanding, it really wasn't representative of the Coronas which went around the world and for decades provided owners and fleets with reliable, if uninspiring transport (very much the Camry of their time).  That made them memorable for many who may have enjoyed the charms of British, French or Italian machinery but found the quirks, oil-leaks, fragility or apparently insoluble issues electrical issues (often described as "gremlins") made ownership tiresome.  Toyota were aware of the advantage their approach (which put a premium on basic engineering and quality control over the finer points of handling and high-speed braking) and their advertising for the Corona in the 1970s said explicitly: "When your heart says Europe but your head says Japan".  People increasingly followed their heads and by 1989 Toyota released the Lexus, proving they were as good at building a Mercedes-Benz as they were at building Toyotas.  It took many attempts for Mercedes-Benz to become (almost) as good at building Toyotas.