BMJ 1994;308:1373 (21 May)

Letters

BMJ's English confuses readers

EDITOR, - I was amazed by the title of a recent editorial, which implied that overdose could be treated with calcium channel blockers.1 I was reassured, however, to read that overdose of calcium channel blockers was being discussed, rather than treatment of overdoses of other drugs with calcium channel blockers. In the same issue Tony Smith mentions extraversion instead of extroversion2 and Bernard Dixon wrote, as the first word of his article, it's - meaning it is - when he meant it has.3 T R Wiggin, who wrote of recovery from near drowning, was let off the hook when "I found me head above water," only to succumb to "rigours and generalised myarthralgia."4 Even Minerva, who is usually precise and efficient in her use of English, managed "treatment with a cyclovir" and then sent me scurrying to my dictionary to find the meaning of coruscating.5 In the same issue are . . . [Full text of this article]


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