With the pandemic hopefully on the wane and warmer days ahead, we dream of beaches and frolicking in the waves. In our nightmares, we dream of sharks. Shark attacks are quite rare (less than 1 per million people per year), but these numbers are increasing.

Just over half of shark attacks are in the United States, rising by about one bite per year since 1982, followed by Australia. Researchers looked at how well shark deterrents that use electric fields worked, such as bracelets and surfboard attachments. They concluded that the devices might save 1,000 lives over the next half-century.

To be fair, sharks face much more dire straits: An estimated 100 million sharks are killed each year compared with the 12 human lives lost on average annually worldwide.

Body of Knowledge

The total surface area of the average human intestinal tract (all 23 feet of it) is approximately half an acre, including all the little bumps and bumps on bumps (villi and millivilli) inside them.

Stories for the Waiting Room

Franz Mesmer was a charismatic Austrian whose purported cures were all the rage for a while in 18th-century Europe. He claimed that everything that acted on the body — gravity, magnetism, electricity, heat and light — was mediated by a "universal fluid." People got sick when they had too much or too little of the fluid in their bodies. Mesmer used magnets to restore proper flow.

Skeptics eventually prompted an investigation, headed by an American doctor named Benjamin Franklin, whose commission determined that Mesmer's cures were largely due to "imagination and imitation."

Mesmer died in Switzerland at the age of 85, discredited, but having left behind the word "mesmerize," which means to hypnotize or spellbind.

Doc Talk

Giant hairy nevus: a dark and often hairy birthmark that may cover a large area of body.

Mania of the Week

Amenomania: a now-disused diagnostic term for people who have pleasant but persistent delusions.

Best Medicine

"Nobody wants a pain reliever that's anything less than extra-strength. Give me the maximum allowable human dosage. Figure out what will kill me, and then back it off a little bit." — Comedian Jerry Seinfeld

Observation

"I have finally come to the conclusion that a good reliable set of bowels is worth more to a man than any quantity of brains." — American humorist Josh Billings

Medical History

At a Mayan burial site in the Honduras in 1931, archaeologists found the jawbone of a woman who had three pieces of seashell placed in her lower jaw, apparently to replace missing teeth. Dating placed the bone's age at A.D. 600. Further examination found that the bone had grown around the shells, indicating the woman was alive for what may be the world's first known dental implant.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases like "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of an actual published research study: "Sword swallowing and its side effects."

Talk about cutting research. This 2009 study in the British Medical Journal (yes, apparently there were still sword swallowers in 2009) looked at technique and complications, finding that distractions were a real issue, as in the case of an unfortunate swallower who experienced throat lacerations after being disturbed by a "misbehaving macaw on his shoulder."

Sum Body

Everybody dies, but the cause of death (and your odds) varies considerably:

— 1 in 7: cigarette smoking.

— 1 in 100: motor vehicle accident.

— 1 in 300: homicide.

— 1 in 800: fire.

— 1 in 2,500: firearms accident.

— 1 in 5,000: electrocution.

— 1 in 20,000: airplane crash.

— 1 in 30,000: flood.

— 1 in 100,000: venomous bite or sting.

— 1 in 1,000,000: fireworks accident.

Source: "The Sizesaurus" by Stephen Strauss (1995).

Med School

Q: What percentage of your body weight consists of blood?

a) 8%

b) 15%

c) 25%

d) 46%

A: a) 8%

Last Words

"I think I'm going to make it." — Richard A. Loeb (1905-1936) after being slashed 56 times with a razor in a prison fight. With Nathan Leopold Jr., Loeb was convicted of the notorious murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks, purportedly as a demonstration of "the perfect crime." Loeb was attacked and killed by fellow inmate James Day.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: PIRO4D at Pixabay