The In Thing

To the Editor.— Readers of medical writings, not necessarily literature, encounter the patient who came "to hospital." The editor chuckles madly, gleefully. With his preferred color of ink, the phrase becomes "to the hospital." Over the weekend, I browsed benignly through a mystery story, balking malignantly when a twin-sister problem appeared half-way through. The twin often appeared to have been "in hospital." In fact, she spent much time in. Although this usage grated, no amount of logic can object to it, because I spent much time in school, in medical school, albeit little in stir. Still, my mystery writer upset me when she had a young man in university! Patients appear in surgery, in intensive care, and in similar discipline. Here I sit in typewriter, beside desk, confused. Soon I leave. Look for me in evening in inn in cups, but not in vain.