Word: mono
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...knows what causes "mono" although most authorizes favor a virus. However, no transmissible agent has ever been isolated. Doctors, although they do not know the specific cause, claim that young unmarried people who are often fatigued are particularly vulnerable. Perhaps this explains why the colleges and school infirmaries have from five to seven-hundred percent more cases than do public hospitals in the same area. The student who suffers form football weekends and hour exams is more liable to suffer than the office worker who enjoys neither of these benefits...
Recently, new light has been shed on the genesis of the disease. Although "mono" is officially designated as "infectious mononucleosis" in text books, it is relatively non-contagious. Roommates do not give each other the disease and infected students do not transfer it in open wards. The "infectious" part of the title applies only to very close contact between the carrier and the uninfected. A report from the U.S. Military Academy suggests that "an intimate mixture of saliva . . . may transmit the disease." Thus, one might trace the disease to beer bottles or cider jugs. The West Point paper, however, gives...
...these simple symptoms are the only abnormal indications, how does the doctor know if one really has "mono" or if it is a just another cold? Moreover, why can't the student diagnose it himself? The doctor can be sure only after he has examined a blood smear. If he finds many cells of an abnormal type he has good evidence of the disease. A confirmatory tests consists of adding a small sample of the serum to a much larger amount of sheep's red blood cells. If the sheep's cells agglomerate the physician can be virtually positive that...
...Mono is a curable disease. The cure is, however, most exasperating. All the doctor can do is prescribe bed rest averaging two weeks and an adequate diet. Occasionally he may use antibiotics to combat secondary complications which invade the weakened body, but these drugs do not attack the disease itself...
...best line in English poetry [TIME, Sept. 13]: the late eminent critic, George Saintsbury, plumped for Shakespeare's Hamlet line, "The rest is silence," as one of the two "jewels four words long" in all poetry. The other, of course (said Saintsbury), is Sappho's "Ego de mono, kateudo" [But I sleep alone...