The primordial 1942 printing of this invaluable booklet is now so rare that only astute book collectors have a copy. In contrast, reprints of the slightly altered version of 1943 are ubiquitous, invariably in the dark blue covers that have accompanied the careers of countless neurologists of my generation (born around the same time as the Aids). From my own bookcase I retrieved a hoard of no less than four blue copies, the only difference between them being the price on the front cover: from 3 shillings in 1967 to 55 new pence in 1975. One of them is my wife's; the other three copies I have kept parked in strategic locations to ensure quick access if the need arose. My personal intimacy with its contents received a powerful boost during a stint at Queen Square in the mid 1970s, through clerking for a consultant whose special interest was in peripheral nerves. Once having been made to understand in no uncertain terms that I was supposed to be au …