The authors (J. C. O'Donovan, MD, and A. S. Bradstock, Jr, BSPharm) tell us at the outset that their study of colic in this issue of the Journal (see page 999) "was supported entirely by the goodwill of the families involved." Goodwill, indeed! Almost the one thing needful! Of the 110 infants eligible for the authors' careful presentation, only 13 were removed for noncompliance!
In the 1920s, two of my children, both girls, had "three months' colic" more severely than that described by our authors. They did not cry: they shrieked in the afternoon and evening hours—and became delightful children and adults. O'Donovan and Bradstock's excellent description of their patients applies perfectly to the two we had around the house and to a series that I thought well qualified to write about some 50 years ago.1
My colicky patients seemed so much "worse off" than theirs, mainly for two