Speaking of which, this year is the centennial of the Flexner Report, which said, in short and fine, “more or less every medical school in North America is total crap (especially Boston University), with the major exception of Johns Hopkins; I declare it to be the exemplar upon which all modern medical education should be based”.

Perhaps if the Old Holies were aware that Dr. Halsted relied heavily on cocaine to maintain his overnight wakefulness we’d have abandoned the ridiculous idea years ago in favour of saner practices.