On The Odiferous

Medicine doesn't smell like medicine anymore. At one time when you were ill you knew you were ill because of the lingering odours of all those unpleasantly thick liquids you were forced to ingest. Nowadays only the fact that you feel yucky is left as evidence of the state of being less than tickety-boo. All the pills and liquids these days taste either neutral or suspiciously pleasant and the lotions have the whiff of the mildly edifying.

I was reminded of this aspect of progress the other night when I put on one of those deep heat plaster whotsits on an uncomfortably aching lower back. Actually it was Noi who put it on after sensibly suggesting I wear one through the night. Now those things do smell, and you know you're getting your money's worth. Every time I turned over in bed I caught a noseful of my patch's richly pink heatiness and felt like a genuine invalid.

Come to think of it, hospitals don't smell much like hospitals. No wonder health tourism is catching on.