LAPIUS 

Introduction 

In 1975 Harper and Row published my book One Man’s Medicine populated by two major characters, Simon Quentin Lapius, and Harry, the former  senior and  wiser than the other. The pair and settings were obviously borrowed from Rex Stout’s detective stories that paired  Nero Wolfe who did the “thinking” for the firm, and his subaltern Archie who did the leg work.  

 S. Q. Lapius a homophone of Aesculapius, son of Apollo, father of Panacea and Hygeia. Aesculapius cured so many patients that Hades was being depopulated. Pluto complained about this to Zeus who palliated him by killing Aesculapius with a thunderbolt. After his death this venerated physician was worshiped and elevated to the pantheon of Greek Gods as the God of Medicine.   

The homophone was misunderstood by most lay readers, who often approached to ask “Nice book but who is this guy Lapidus?” 

After the book was published I continued to write brief vignettes about medical and other topics between 1973-1975 in the Lapius format. They are pertinent to medical issues being discussed today.  

Here they are 300 pages worth of good bed-time reading.