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.
About the Author: Britt Talley Daniel MD is a practicing neurologist from Dallas, Texas. Trained in medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and in neurology at the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Daniel served his country as a staff neurologist LCDR, USNR at Balboa Hospital in San Diego, California at the end of the Vietnam conflict. After this he was on the senior staff as a neurologist at Scott and White Clinic in Temple, Texas and an Associate Professor of Neurology at Texas A&M University Medical School. Moving to Dallas to start a private practice, Dr. Daniel taught at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School as a Clinical Associate Professor of Neurology. Currently he is a member of the American Academy of Neurology, the American Headache Society, and the American Association of Neuromuscular and Electrodiagnostic Medicine. His EMG lab has recently been declared an Accredited Laboratory of Exemplary Status. Married and with 5 grown children, Dr. Daniel is a lifelong folksinger and guitar picker. He is also the author of 2 medical textbooks: Migraine, published in print in 2010 and as an ebook in 2012 and Transient Global Amnesia published in print and as an ebook in 2012. He has also written a transgenerational novel, published as an ebook January 2012, about a medical family from England who relocates to America aboard the haunted Titanic, entitled: Titanic: Answer from the Deep.