Sketches, Watercolours and Written Passages by Stuart Eldridge
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." |
