• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

Fm: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

To: Jo C. Harmon 103151,655

Dear Jo—

Well, I thought she’d lost them in the shipwreck, too, but small matters like that are easily adjustable . As long as I didn’t flat out _say_ she lost them somewhere, I can always explain them _ex post facto_, one way or the other (ah, what it is to be a godlike Author!).

I’m sorry, I wasn’t precise. My informant said it would need to be _injectable_, not necessarily IV. Just my guess that if you had what looked like a systemic septicemia, you’d do IV push.

Hm. You mean, you would expect respiratory distress following the _first_ administration of penicillin? Because Rosamund definitely had respiratory distress following the second.

Do hypersensitive individuals normally show symptoms of allergy following a first exposure, though? I know very little about it, but had the impression that a first exposure might be symptomless, but—having had the effect of sensitizing the patient—the second exposure might have dramatic effects. Very easy to include respiratory distress following the first injection, if it should be there, of course.

Thanks for the help!—Diana

Fm: Jo C. Harmon 103151,655

To: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

Dear Diana:

<< Do hypersensitive individuals normally show symptoms of allergy following a first exposure, though? I know very little about it, but had the impression that a first exposure might be symptomless, but—having had the effect of sensitizing the patient—the second exposure might have dramatic effects.>>

I think you’re right about the probable lack of reaction to the first exposure, of course. Didn’t think that one through before my fingers flew across the keys!

<>

So true—don’t know about you, but I have to avoid mushrooms, cheese, and wines or else I get a whopping migraine. (Can’t eat too much chocolate, either.) Jo

Fm: Arlene McCrea 73051,2517

To: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

Diana,

Thought your section PENICILLIN was terrific! Did, however, have something you might consider.

Since the funeral repast was being laid out in the same room as the corpse, I wondered how soon after death did this occur? If the corpse had such a virulent infection, I would think that without embalming, the odor of death would be pervasive.

I wanted to be certain about this before I wrote you, so I phoned my daughter Lisa (who has been a nurse for twenty years) and she agreed with me. Her comment was “You’d better put the corpse in the root cellar right away if you expect to eat in that room!” Even more so since she had the open wound! With the kind of a wound you described the odor would get bad very quickly!

Lisa said in reading the passage she would notice that right away!

Just trying to be helpful! Arlene

Fm: Ellen Mandell 76764,2512

To: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

Dear Diana,

Let’s see, where should I begin? Penicillin, which is what Alex Fleming named the liquid secreted by his mold, isn’t toxic. Neither is the mold. Fleming showed this by injecting his mold—full strength—into mice and rabbits without harm. Although large doses of penicillin may cause nausea or diarrhea, you (Claire, rather ) won’t be able to kill your patient with an overdose.

The big problem in penicillin production was getting a high enough yield of the liquid—I read somewhere that adding brewer’s yeast improved the yield—and the key step in purification was freeze-drying. Not much help, I’m afraid.

Certainly exposure to the molds can be sensitizing. I had a positive scratch test to the _Penicillium spp._ mixture, because I’m sensitized to one or more of the molds in the mixture. But if I inhaled raw _Penicillium_, without first snorting some Nasalcrom, I expect that I’d get a runny nose at worst, and I eat Roquefort and other blue cheeses with allergenic impunity.

Molds aren’t on the list of substances—mostly proteins—that cause anaphylaxis. And while penicillin most definitely is, the manifestation of