Today, when the whole question of salvarsan therapy is still in dispute, when an absolutely conclusive opinion is not possible, when the treatment of syphilis based on the Wassermann reaction is deceptive, salvarsan should not be held up to patients as an hyperideal remedy.

Mr Weedon explains that this is a cell search - known by prisoners as a spin - and for obvious reasons it has to be carried out without any warning.

But unlike the intervention in Libya, where France and Britain took point and America “led from behind”, an intervention in Syria would have to be a mostly American affair, and as such it would be done with massive force from the outset.

The possession of cilia is an apomorphic trait of this family.