Chambers's rules!

I refer to Chambers's Encyclopædia from time to time, for example at reference 1, and I was reminded today that despite its being at least sixty years old, it still comes in handy from time to time.

Reminded, because we wanted to know the time of year that the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918-1919 peaked, and we thought to take a look at Chambers's under 'I'. We don't have the answer to the question, but we do have a nearly three column article summarising the state of knowledge about influenza in the middle of the last century. A summary which we thought still serves well, certainly for lay purposes.

We learn, for example, that at that time, ferrets were widely used as experiment animals, being helpfully liable to catch flu. There is also talk of pigs.

All decently hidden under the initials 'W.S.', having been written when most egos were still of modest proportions, but if one bothers to turn back to the beginning of the volume (7, HEI-IZV), one learns that W.S. was one Wilson Smith, M.D., Dipl.Bact., F.R.S., Professor of Bacteriology at the University of London. So a reputable source. I wonder if he got any kind of a honorarium or fee, or whether he regarded writing pieces of this sort as something to be knocked off on the side, for free? As a public servant doing a public service.

Reference 1: http://psmv2.blogspot.com/2015/08/corby-crimmy.html.

Reference 2: Chambers's Encyclopædia - George Newnes Ltd - 1959.

Reference 3: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014067360081750X. Wilson Smith does not make it to Wikipedia, but ScienceDirect clearly know all about him, with this reference being just one of a number.