Famed children's author Roald Dahl greatly admired doctors who pioneered new medicines and even dedicated his book George's Marvelous Medicine —in which a young boy cooks up a potion using various ingredients around his family farm—to "doctors everywhere. And now a recent paper published in the annual Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal BMJ has determined just how toxic the concoction could be if ingested.
The BMJ's Christmas issue is typically more light-hearted in nature, although the journal maintains that the papers published therein still "adhere to the same high standards of novelty, methodological rigour, reporting transparency, and readability as apply in the regular issue. In Dahl's book, eight-year-old George Kranky is home alone with his bossy, bullying grandmother, and he decides to concoct his own magic potion to replace her usual medicine as a way of getting even.
Among the ingredients he collects from around the family farm: deodorant, shampoo, floor polish, horseradish sauce, gin, engine oil, antifreeze, brown paint, sheep dip, and "purple pills for hoarse horses.
When his parents find out, George's father comes up with a scheme to raise giant animals to get rich and end world hunger. But George can't quite replicate his original recipe, and the fourth version has the opposite effect, causing those who drink it to shrink.
George's grandmother mistakes it for tea and drinks the whole thing, shrinking out of existence. In typical Dahl fashion, the family shrugs off the granny's disappearance, and the book ends with George pondering the potential of this new magical world he has discovered. Graham Johnson and Patrick Davies of the University of Nottingham's School of Medicine decided to analyze the therapeutic effects and toxicity of the marvelous medicine, using ToxBase, a national database of poisons in the UK.
And while they clearly had fun with the project, there is a more serious underlying objective: more than 28, children receive treatment for poisoning in the UK each year, according to the authors, and more than 3, children die each year across the European Union. Most unintentional poisonings occur in the home. While the effects described in the book were initially accurate, allowing for some poetic licence - Grandma initially "shot up whoosh into the air" and when she landed she shouted suddenly "My stomach's on fire!
The authors point to several limitations, for example, they did not combine the medicine as described so are unable to comment on the chemical interactions which may occur between the ingredients, and the precise dose of the medicine taken by Grandma is not documented, leading to some assumptions on the effects. But they say with the extra time being spent at home by children, and their natural desire to experiment and explore, it is vital that parents are well informed to ensure their children's safety.
Peer reviewed? It was only when she had him on her own that she began treating him badly. Boys who grow too fast become stupid and lazy. George took a good look at Grandma. She certainly was a very tiny person. Her legs were so short she had to have a footstool to put her feet on, and her head only came halfway up the back of the armchair.
Grandma sipped some tea but never took her eyes from the little boy who stood before her. From now on, you must eat cabbage three times a day. Mountains of cabbage! Slugs, too. The old hag grinned, showing her pale brown teeth. It has a pair of sharp nippers on its back end and if it grabs your tongue with those, it never lets go.
George started edging towards the door. He wanted to get as far away as possible from this filthy old woman. Could it be, George wondered, that she was a witch? He had always thought witches were only in fairy tales, but now he was not so sure. It was a thin icy smile, the kind a snake might make just before it bites you.
George began to tremble. It was her face that frightened him the most of all, the frosty smile, the brilliant unblinking eyes. George made a dive for the door.
Roald Dahl was a spy, ace fighter pilot, chocolate historian and medical inventor. Bring a sprinkling of Roald Dahl magic to your favourite stories with this set of printable bookmarks. Which hero will you pick? Matilda is the world's most famous bookworm, no thanks to her ghastly parents. Her father thinks she's a little scab. Her mother spends all afternoon playing bingo.
And her headmistress, Miss Trunchbull? She's the worst of all. Are you Roald Dahl's biggest fan? Take our phizz-whizzing quiz, and find out if you really know the difference between a snozzcumber and a trogglehumper. There's lots of surprises, and plenty of mischief to be made! Stories, ideas and giveaways to help you spark young imaginations.
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