And If Thine Eye Offend Thee

And If Thine Eye Offend Thee, is a story about a mystery solving physician, Dr. MacArthur Donne, from Austin, Texas. Dr. Donne, accompanied by his rambunctious side kick and good friend, Jack Robbie, is called to Biggin Hill, England to investigate the cause of the death of an Englishwoman, Mrs. Martha Lindsay. Saddened by the recent death of his own wife but energized by the prospect of an interesting problem, Dr. Donne and Jack arrive in the midst of the Mad Cow epidemic. Getting nowhere by interviewing the stricken woman's mumbling general physician, Dr. Donne takes over and solves the mystery. As a neurologist I have known and cared for persons stricken with Creutzfeldt Jakob disease, an illness of the brain caused by microscopic bits of protein called prions. When the Mad Cow illness struck England, it was discovered to be a similar illness caused by viral infection. The macabre practice of serving cattle ground up feed that included brain tissue caused the problem. The story was suggested by an article in the British Medical Journal and I wanted to share the mystery of the Faustian results of such a bizarre practice.