Lamentable loss of Latin

GORDON Casely (Letters, February 5) is incorrect when he writes “One double-deck bus: two double-deck bi”. “Bus” is short for “omnibus” (L, dative tense, for all). Omnibus has no plural; consequently the plural of bus is buses.

I trained medical students who now commonly fail to fully understand the required vocabulary, but can parrot the words; making them vulnerable to an older generation of teachers and, more importantly, to errors of communication and clinical errors. It is axiomatic that clinical science is not understood if the vocabulary is not understood.

One of the many failures of state education in Scotland is dropping the Classics (Ancient Greek and Latin). My wife deplores dropping Domestic

Science, but about that I dare not comment further.

Dr William Durward, Bearsden.