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Regularly imbibing Dickens may inspire healthfulness
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     EDITOR—Anaesthetist Nick Jefferies's announcements on happiness unhappily contain an incorrect reference.1 The one from Dickens he wrongly attributes to the Pickwick Papers. We must cordially insist, therefore, that he now read all the novels, to locate its proper source. This is no condign punishment, rather the reverse. In such perusal, particularly of Dickens's first and stupendously joyful novel, Pickwick, Jefferies may find, like millions of others since publication of the first instalment in 1836, an entrancing happiness beyond his wildest dreams.

    For reasons quite mystifying, regular imbibers of such literary delectations only seldom, and then only briefly, become patients. It is tempting to deduce that such items are restorative, even sometimes curative. However, such anecdotal observation and deduction have no place in modern, scientific, medical thought. Yet they are still mightily striking.

    Mr Micawber famously defined happiness

    Credit: MEPL

    William G Pickering, medical practitioner

    7 Moor Place, Newcastle upon Tyne NE3 4AL wgpi@hotmail.com

    Competing interests: None declared.

    References

    Jefferies N. Happiness is... BMJ 2004;328: 453. (21 February.)