Very often, however, such misreaction is caused by external circumstances in an individual whose psychological structure is affected by constitutional or acquired pathological features.

In Sydenham’s 1683 treatise on the disease, for the sudden onset of violent symptoms he recommended laudanum — a tincture of opium and alcohol — to take the edge off the pain; […]

Indeed the embryo of much nineteenth century reform had already appeared in the curious provision of the ancient Statutes of the Guild (chapter 10), whereby a penalty is incurred gif ony stal (minxerit — a word which Skene vernacularises with excessive bluntness!) in the yet of the gilde or upon the wall of the gild.

Yet the media has peddled alarming stories of a “beepocalypse” — a crash in honeybee populations.