The Saturday briefing
Is there anything you’re yearning to know? Send your questions, on any subject, to the contacts given below, and we will do our best to answer them...
QAround 70 years ago, I practised hypnotism after reading a volume by Dr S J Van Pelt, who described himself as president of British Medical Hypnotists. Does this society still exist?
Jim Tinning, Broadstairs, Kent
ADr Sidney James Van Pelt was a pioneer of medical hypnotism in the 1950s and wrote widely on the subject.
He qualified in Australia and worked as a surgeon in the Royal Navy before setting up a practice in London’s Harley Street, specialising in hypnosis.
A 1954 newspaper article said he could get “excellent results in the treatment of neuroses, alcoholism, sexual perversions, stammering, insomnia, obsessions and many other complaints”.
He was also highly critical of stage hypnotists at that time, who were giving his work a bad name. At Brighton Hippodrome in 1948, an 18-year-old was hypnotised to act like a scared baby missing her mother. She later sank into a depression and her parents successfully sued the American hypnotist involved.
Such scandals led to a clampdown on stage hypnotism and, in 1952, Dr Van Pelt helped the Government with its Hypnotism Bill to regulate the practice as entertainment.
He also founded and was lifetime president of the British Society of Medical Hypnotists, which only accepted medical practitioners and pushed the science behind it. He died in 1976 and that group is no more.
UNDERMINED: Dr Van Pelt, inset below, felt some stage perfomances were giving hypnotists a bad name
However the British Society of Clinical and Academic Hypnosis carries out a similar role, promoting and maintaining high standards in medicine, dentistry and psychology.
Practitioners say hypnotism can help with everything from depression to addictions. It has even been used instead of anaesthesia for brain and heart operations, with patients remaining awake, pain-free and calm under the knife.
QHow did the expression “the best laid plans of mice and men” originate?
Paul Thomas, Kidderminster, Worcs
AIt comes from Robert Burns, and featured in his poem To A Mouse. He wrote “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft agley (often go awry)”, meaning that no matter who you are, your finest plans can still go belly-up. So one tale goes, he was ploughing a field when he accidentally destroyed a mouse’s nest and came up with the line.
Burns himself had planned to move from Scotland to Jamaica after struggling as a farmer – but then his poetry took off.
He wrote To A Mouse when he was 26 in 1785, the same year his first child was born, to his mother’s servant.
John Steinbeck has Burns to thank for the title of his 1937 novel, Of Mice And Men, which also focuses on the disappointment of failed plans.
QWhat is the difference between a nasty bacterial illness and a nasty viral illness?
AByron Williams, Pontypridd, Wales
The most obvious one is that antibiotics usually kill bacteria but they aren’t effective against viruses because they have a different structure.
Bacteria thrive in many types of environment, with some “good” bacteria living in your intestines, helping you digest food. But some are harmful and can lead to complaints such as urinary tract infections.
Viruses, on the other hand, are even tinier than bacteria and need living hosts to survive and multiply.They are more haphazard and hijack cells, leading to chickenpox, measles, colds and flu.And there are coronaviruses, one of which can cause Covid-19.
Your immune system fights off most viruses.You take supportive measures, such as drinking fluid and taking paracetamol, but you’re not treating it directly and many have to run their course.
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) targets immune cells, so the immune system is helpless because it is under attack itself.
There are some vaccines and antiviral drugs that aim to reduce and treat viruses. For instance you can get a prescription to shorten the length and severity of the viral infection shingles.
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By post: Unfortunately we cannot reply individually, but we will feature the best questions on this page. RILLOBY-RILL
Sir Henry Newbolt (1862-1938)
Grasshoppers four a-fiddling went, Heigh-ho! never be still! They earned but little towards their rent
But all day long with their elbows bent They fiddled a tune called Rilloby-rilloby, Fiddled a tune called Rilloby-rill.
Grasshoppers soon on Fairies came, Heigh-ho! never be still! Fairies asked with a manner of blame, “Where do you come from, what is your name? What do you want with your Rilloby-rilloby, What do you want with your Rilloby-rill?”
“Madam, you see before you stand, Heigh-ho! never be still! The Old Original Favourite Grand Grasshopper’s Green Herbarian Band, And the tune we play is Rilloby-rilloby, Madam, the tune is Rilloby-rill.”
If you can’t remember the words to a favourite verse or song from yesteryear, send us a snippet and we’ll do our best to find all the wonderful words.