�������ýҕ�l

On his way home from delivering the Gettysburg Address in 1863, President Abraham Lincoln was overcome by a splitting headache. A fever was coming on. He grew quiet. Not knowing what else to do, the president who had just given one of the most famous speeches in American history went to his drawing room and bathed his head in cold water. Then he lay down. At his side on Nov. 19, 1863, helping take care of him was one of the most important yet historically overlooked people in Lincoln’s life — William H. Johnson, a 30-year-old Black man the president had brought with him from Illinois to be his personal valet. (Rosenwald, 10/11)

When Ireland’s Supreme Court recently announced its ruling in a years-long legal battle involving a local Subway franchisee, news coverage of the decision produced variations of the same eyebrow-raising headline: “Subway bread is not bread,” the Guardian reported. The ruling stated that Subway rolls have too much sugar to meet the country’s legal definition of bread, according to the Irish Independent. ... But while the arcane Irish tax dispute over bread ingredients may just seem like fodder for late-night talk shows, experts in nutrition say the court case should serve as a timely reminder about the extra sugar lurking in common foods, especially in light of a potential upcoming change to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. (Chiu, 10/8)

Since forever, people have looked to plants for healing. And plant-based medicine isn’t just the territory of herbalists; from your cup of tea to the prescription medicines you may rely on, medicines derived from or inspired by plants are all around us. “Botanicum Medicinale” tells the story of herbal medicine with the help of gorgeous botanical illustrations and a wealth of knowledge about the history and future of healing plants. Written by British science writer Catherine Whitlock and designed by Lindsey Johns, it’s a veritable garden of information about plants and their medicinal properties. (Blakemore, 10/10)

The doctor called on Mother’s Day with the news Karen Wilson had dreaded for weeks. Your brother won’t survive the night, he told her. Expect another call soon. Don’t be alone. Wilson’s younger brother, Jules Duhe, had been on a ventilator fighting COVID-19 since April. She hung up the phone and called her other brother, cried, showered and cried some more before finally falling asleep. (Jervis and Gomez, 10/13)

On June 26, 2018, Donna Nathan killed herself in New Orleans with a gun that she had purchased earlier that morning, ending a 30-year battle with bipolar disorder and depression. Nathan fought right up until the end. In her last six months, she admitted herself three times for inpatient psychiatric treatment because she wanted to address her suicidal thoughts and prior impulsive suicide attempts. Each time, she willingly accepted the limitations on liberty that come with a psychiatric hospitalization in exchange for safety and the prospect of improvement. What she could not limit, under Louisiana law, was her ability to quickly purchase a gun. (Vars and Ayres, 10/14)

The newest lavatory was designed specifically with female anatomy in mind. In this way, the Universal Waste Management System is more than a toilet. It is a symbol of a changing American space program that for its first two decades took only men to space. Although men still make up the majority of NASA’s astronaut workforce, there are more women astronauts than ever before, and the agency has recognized that it must adapt its technology to meet their needs. “It’s about time,” Nicole Stott, a retired NASA astronaut who flew two missions to the space station, told me. (Koren, 10/12)

Some people describe a police dog’s bite as a deep tear through their flesh. Others are haunted by the feeling of a Vise-Grip, the dog's jaws slowly but painfully tightening around their arms or legs until the muscles go numb. These are not the nips or snaps of a pet dog in a backyard. A police dog, trained for weeks on how to bite harder and faster and with little reservation, can inflict debilitating injuries and lasting scars. The physical damage lingers as long as the memories of a dog’s snarling teeth, its guttural growls, its head ripping back and forth upon crashing into a fleeing target, all while a police officer stands nearby shouting commands and praise in German, Dutch or Czech. (Martin, Fan, Brozost-Kelleher and Glover, 10/11)

In Indianapolis, police dogs are biting people at a rate unseen in the other largest 19 U.S. cities. And it’s not even close. Whereas some major cities such as Chicago and San Francisco saw one bite over the last three years, Indianapolis saw one every five days. From 2017 to 2019, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department had more bites than New York; Chicago; Philadelphia; San Antonio; Dallas; Austin; San Francisco; Fort Worth; Columbus; Seattle; and Washington, D.C. combined. (Martin, Fan, Brozost-Kelleher and Glover, 10/11)