A booklet entitled Doctors on the Streets of Paris is a compilation of Parisian streets named after famous and infamous doctors of medicine. The names were found by perusing two street directories of Paris, and the biological details were obtained from various histories of medicine and records of the French Académie de Médecine. For those interested in wandering down rue Charcot or rue Dupuytren and who want more information, contact a.sykes@avmail.co.uk

A case report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (2004;97: 441-2) describes a woman aged 73 who was admitted to hospital with a hot, red, painful, swollen knee. She had had an arthroplasty 14 months earlier. The cause was found to be infection with Pasteurella multocida, a recognised hazard for women who have had a joint replacement and who own a cat. Cats may pass on the infection if they are allowed to lick skin damaged by a scratch or bite; they carry the organism in their saliva. Prophylactic antibiotics are a good idea.

A survey of emergency department doctors trained to detect misuse of alcohol with a well defined protocol found an overwhelmingly positive attitude to both detection and treatment. Early detection was thought important by 98%, and 98% …