• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 2196 0

human drug allergies depends on the route of administration as well as genetic predisposition and the extent of prior exposure. So while Claire’s patient could have an idiosyncratic reaction, I think the chance of allergic anaphylaxis is vanishingly small, unless the stuff was injected, and even then it’s hardly likely.

In the big surveillance studies, the rate of anaphylactoid reactions to injected penicillins is less than 1 in 3,000, the vast majority being to semisynthetic penicillins, which are more allergenic than penicillin G. It’s estimated there are fewer than 100 annual fatalities attributable to penicillin injections in the U.S., and none to oral penicillins.

Okay… Claire would know that toxicity wasn’t a problem, so she’d want to get as much of her culture as possible into the patient. She’d know that oral dosing was useless —stomach acid would destroy most of the drug’s activity—but she’d have only a little worry about an allergic reaction. Knowing she _had_ to inject the drug, she’d find a way. Perhaps with a clyster syringe and some sort of deep puncture? The husband would expect such standard therapy as bleeding and clysters, wouldn’t he?

Oh yeah, mustn’t forget—she might not be allowed to amputate, but she’d try to surgically drain the infected limb. Ellen

Fm: Mira Brown 100425,170

To: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

Hi Diana,

Arlene is right, and so are you. As I told you before, I’ve seen it in villages. The smell is pervasive and peculiar. People usually put a lot of, as you say, herbs, but mostly frequently changed fir/pine branches on the floor. As mourners tread on them they bruise the needles and release the smell. It helps, but not a great deal, not even on the first day.

I expect that’s why some communities keep the windows open to “help the soul leave” or something like that. But elsewhere, the windows are shut and curtains closed and a lot of people faint, not strictly from emotion.

Mira

Fm: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

To: Mira Brown 100425,170

Dear Mira—

A good thought, to add aromatic conifer branches on the floor. It wouldn’t have been (I don’t think) a Scottish custom, they not having a lot of conifers to hand in Scotland—but there are certainly plenty in North Carolina (or were).—Diana

Fm: Diana Gabaldon 76530,523

To: Arlene McCrea 73051,2517

Dear Arlene—

A very good thought! However, the woman died at dawn; it’s now late afternoon of the same day, as Claire is writing up her notes (that should be clear when I add the [date] bits). The body will also have been washed and “laid out” (presumably with the addition of turpentine or vinegar, and aromatic herbs) in the meantime, most likely in Claire’s surgery or out in the woodshed. Since it will have taken the men a little while to build the coffin, chances are the newly shrouded corpse was brought into the room only a little time before—and will be taken out by dawn of the next day, for burial after the wake.

Thanks!—Diana

1Essentially, this just means I direct traffic, promote conversations, and answer questions where and as I can. All section leaders are unpaid volunteers.

2 It is possible to post a message privately, in which case only the addressee can read it. Most messages are posted publicly.

3 All messages that appear on CompuServe are the copyrighted property of the people who write them. The messages reproduced here are reprinted by permission of the authors.

4 The first few messages are reproduced just as they appear online, with all “header” information intact. Beyond the first few, though, most of the header information has been eliminated to improve readability.

PART SEVEN

WHERE TITLES COME FROM

————

AND OTHER MATTERS

OF GENERAL INTEREST

OUTLANDER VS. CROSS STITCH

ne of the questions asked most frequently—by people who have looked for my books in the U.K.—is, “Why does your first book have a different title over there?” That is, the book titled Outlander here in the States is titled Cross Stitch in the U.K. (and the Commonwealth countries, such as Australia and New Zealand).