Sublime

Southerner, Wilson had been president of Princeton, the only major northern university that flatly refused to admit blacks. He was an outspoken white supremacist—his wife was even worse—and told “darky” stories in cabinet meetings.

Leigh’s elm, Jean’s ash, Emmett’s ironwood, and Adam’s maple, each made from identical green puffballs.

in 1816 a French physician was too embarrassed to put his ear up to a female patient’s chest to listen to her heart and lungs (as was the norm at the time) and instead rolled twenty-four sheets of paper into a cone to create some distance between them. I think this distance between physician and patient has only grown larger over time.

The Berlin press badgered the Prussian ruler, Frederick William IV, to do something about the disaster. Finally, the public outcry forced the government to form a commission of investigation, under the direction of the Privy Councillor for Health. Rudolf Virchow’s “strongest desire” was fulfilled when he was named medical officer to the commission.