Sketches, Watercolours and Written Passages by Stuart Eldridge

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This script is on a scrap of paper inserted between the leaves of Eldridge's journal. The date is March 22nd, but no year is given. It clearly describes what would today be called a "mini stroke" or transient ischaemic attack. These occurences are often associated with the formation of blood clots in the arterial system leading to the cerebral cortex. Heavy smoking or atrial fibrillation can be predisposing factors. If this occurred at the time when Eldridge was keeping this journal, he would, at 28 or 29, be considered extremely young for such an event.The last sentence of this note is ominous, even prophetic:  Eldridge died at the age of fifty nine of heart disease. The script reads: "Today noticed a slight on sidedness to my face and on projecting tongue found rather to my disgust that it went away over to one side. I stop smoking at once and forever, for I believe that the disurbance is purely functional and the result of tobacco. Still, it may but the beginning of the end."
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