Noteworthy Quaintitudes in the History of Medicine, with an opening unrelated, yet presicent, fact with regard to the Histories Militant as well.

During the Crusades, Odo of Bayeux, a cleric, preferred the use of blunt objects so as to avoid the dreaded blood-letting.

And This, from Asimov's Book of Facts:

"The Fourth Lateran council, in 1215, forbade clerics in holy orders to include surgery in their practice of medicine so they would not spill blood. Surgery was left to men who were neither scholars nor gentlemen. A distinction grew between physicians, who were members of a learned profession, and surgeons, who practiced a menial trade, often doubling as barbers or dentists."

Would that the Reader forgive potential impudence, but there is a conclusion the Author has made (with regard to the above excerpt) in the form of a Rubric, thusly:

Words (Men-of-Letters & Philosophers) ::Deeds (Commoners & Vagabonds)

And again, allow the Author to quote a defunct and long-forgotten group of futurist-cynic-satirist-minded, silvery faux appliance-bedecked automaton impersonators/troubadours:

"It takes action to act."

Incidentally, the word for "quack" (orig. quack-salver) in Spanish is sacamuelas, "tooth-puller/yanker."

The medieval barbers would affix bloody handkerchiefs to poles, implying experience in the now-infamous practice of blood-letting.

As for the subject of The Four Humours, now that is a matter for another day; or several, as it were.

~Dain Q. Gore

To open the conversation, facts and conundrums:

Wherein...

(Dearest Reader-Spectateur of highest regard)

It ("it" being a collection of useless trifles in the form of the dear authors intent) has been planned as such for so many a day and a night, within the confines of the mental faculties of the aforementioned (or at the very least, suggested by the existence of text) bachelor-amateur (in whatever guise that may, in fact, entail).

The plan, that which is now to be dispensed with, is thus: on this collection of pages is intended to be contained a collection (indeed, as so previously implied) solely devoted to trivia and miscellania...some of which could contain (but certainly with no specific promise of such) not only facts, but also rubrics, diagrams, cyphers, quotes both literal and paraphrasical, maxims, aphorisms, esoterica, thought-puzzles, so-called "word-play," and matters both pedantic and aesthetic.

And so, to commence, I therefore present a quaint sort of challenge, in the form of a sober statement of fact that merely insinuates matter-of-factitude (for in fact, there is little-to-none to be had in said following statement without proper vouchsafes given on the part of the author), of obscure proportion:

I humbly suggest an introspection regarding the implication set forth in the episode known in history (specifically the History Militant) in the corporeal form of The Potsdam Grenadiers, the so-called Giants;

Or, (perhaps as an all-emcompassing challenge in the form of overall discussion) On Building a better bodyguard.

~Dain Quentin Gore