Puddery seems to be regrettably increasing in medicine. In my lifetime I have seen the mad-doctor pass through the chrysalis of alienist into the butterfly of psychiatrist. This is perhaps excusable, but why have Some seventy years ago a promising young neurologist made a discovery that necessitated the addition of a new word to the English vocabulary. He insisted that this should be knee-jerk, and knee-jerk it has remained, in spite of the efforts of patella reflex to dislodge it. He was my father; so perhaps I have inherited a prejudice in favour of home-made words.