Meanwhile, a footnote to my last post, I discover (initially by the simple stratagem of a Google search) that ‘General Paralysis’ isn’t a wide open term which could cover things like the post-traumatic stress disorders but rather a consistently used and precise albeit euphemistic term for tertiary syphilis (that is the final stage long after initial infection when the brain is attacked). I have been guilty in at least one case of over romanticised assumptions when telling the stories of our war graves; historians recognise the phenomenon of the amateur being distracted by what he wants to see and not pursuing things far enough to challenge his own initial assumptions.
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