HOW sad to read of the premature death from cancer of Sally Silver, soprano in opera and concerts (Obituaries, December 5).
My wife and I attended her debut with Scottish Opera and Lucia Di Lammermoor has been a favourite opera ever since. When, as her obituary reports, she injured her leg, the opera stopped, curtain down for 10 minutes. Lucia has her elderly nurse Alisa in the cast and so it was she who pushed the requisitioned wheelchair when act one resumed. At the first interval, I offered my medical expertise, indicating which bar I would be in, and was advised that there was ap hysiotherapist.
I almost got to meet Ms Silver later that evening. During act two Lucia is married off to Arturo, rather than her lover Edgardo, and half faints when the latter returns. At the second interval, the call came out for a doctor. Hurrying downstairs, I was disappointed when a more fleet-of-foot colleague got there first. Memories of a great voice, a splendid opera and Scottish Opera, a terrific company.
Dr Philip Gaskell,
Woodlands Lodge, Drymen.
IN the comprehensive obituary following the death of the statistician, David Finney (The Herald, December 6), tributes were paid to the contribution he made to the Committee on the Safety of Medicines, which was established in 1963 in the wake of the thalidomide tragedy.
The committee was chaired by the distinguished physician, Sir Derrick Dunlop who had held the Chair of Therapeutics at Edinburgh University. Among his many attributes, Sir Derrick was noted for his sense of humour.
As a criticising pharmacist at
that time, I recalled his definition of therapeutics which, if my memory serves me correctly, ran along the lines of: “The practice of administering medicines about which we understand little, to patients about whom we understand less.”
It is to be hoped that we now understand a little more about both medicines and patients.
Malcolm Allan,
2 Tofthill Gardens,
Bishopbriggs,
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here