OSLER LIBRARY NEWSLETTER

McGill University, Montreal, Canada No. 71- October 1992

THE OSLER-BUCKE RELATIONSHIP liam Osler. Dr. Bucke (1837-1902) was a re- Bibliotheca Osleriana 7660 contains twelve AND THE WHITMAN CLUTTER spected practitioner and superintendent of pages of notes for Osler’s projected lecture the asylum for the insane in London, On- on , and typescripts of related , now thirty-seven years old tario. However, he had first come to Cam- letters. As Cushing recounts, in 1919, the cen- in perfect health begin, den in 1877 on a personal mission - to tenary of Whitman’s birth, Sir William was Hoping to cease not till search out the poet whose lines in Leaves of asked by two literary groups to speak about death. Grass, read years before, had echoed and his encounters with Whitman twenty years Leaves of Grass, 2nd ed., further inspired his own mystic vision of the previously: one was Sir Walter Raleigh’s Eng- 1856. universe. From that meeting on, Bucke was lish class at Oxford; the second was a group to assume several functions for the charis- of English admirers of Whitman at London’s Walt Whitman did con- matic Whitman, including biographer and City Temple. Though himself in ill health, Sir tinue to write poems and edit and reorder active defender. However, it was his role as William accepted these invitations, and his works until his death, all in new editions the poet’s medical advisor that is of initial spent his final summer vacation at St. Bre- of Leaves of Grass (1), although he did so interest here. For it is in this capacity that lade’s in Jersey with “two writing-tables through many years of imperfect health. In Bucke called upon his respected colleague prepared, one for the Nervous System [a January 1873, Whitman, then living in William Osler, recently ensconsed in Phila- revision of the chapter in his textbook] and Washington, suffered the first of a series of delphia as Professor of Medicine at Univer- one for Walt Whitman". (4) strokes occasioned, he and his friends be- sity of Pennsylvania, to look in on Whitman. Osler did not live to polish or deliver the lieved, by an illness picked up years before Osler agreed, and attended Whitman inter- lecture he had entitled “A Centenary Ad- when nursing soldiers in camp hospitals mittently, alone and with Bucke, until 1889, dress: Walt Whitman, with Personal Remi- during the War Between the States. By the when he left for Johns Hopkins. niscences”. Nor did he have a chance to summer of 1873, Whitman’s health had not The state of Whitman’s health has been reread his pages and note how large a por- improved. Thus the fifty-five year old poet, amply explored, as has, for that matter, the tion of his Whitman talk had been devoted worshipped by a small band of intellectuals poet’s attitudes towards his two Canadian to “his friend Maurice Bucke of London, and idealogues on both sides of the Atlantic, doctors. (2) What has not been fully nor fairly Ont." (5) who had first asked him to look in and mocked for his self-described “barbaric treated is Osler’s view of Bucke, and the on Whitman. And Osler could certainly not yawp" by most critics and readers, had been strenghtened nature of their relationship, have anticipated that Cushing in his Life of forced to move to Camden, , a cemented by their work together on the Osler would excerpt the one passage from nondescript industrial and shipping town Whitman case. (3) These are the areas I will B.O. 7660 that presents Bucke in his least where his brother lived. explore here. Since much germane informa- dignified state, that of mystical Whitman There, a ferry-ride away from wealthy, tion is to be found in Bibliotheca Osleriana enthusiast in the process of giving witness. cultivated , the poet would 7660. and the selectively reproduced sec- hold his (often lonely) court. And there, tions therefrom -- very damaging to Bucke Of the two men Bucke interested me through the years, Whitman would be at- - found in Cushing’s Life of Osler, an exami- more. Though a hero-worshipper, it tended by two McGill-trained Canadian nation of these two sources will be my start- was a new experience in my life to wit- physicians: Richard Maurice Bucke and Wil- ing point. ness such an absolute idolatry. Where

Hurrah for positive science! Long live exact demonstration! Fetch stonecrop and mix it with cedar and branches of lilac; This is the lexicographer or chemist ...... this made a grammar of the old cartouches, These mariners put the ship through dangerous unknown seas, This is the geologist, and this works with the scalpel, and this is a mathematician.

Gentlemen I receive you, and attach and clasp hands with you, The facts are useful and real . ... they are not my dwelling .... I enter by them to an area of the dwelling.

Walt Whitman, as the Good Gray Poet, photographed Richard Maurice Bucke (Courtesy of Special shortly after the Civil War. (Collection of the author) Collections, University of Western Library)

The initial letter on this page is reproduced from Alexander Nesbitt (ed.) Decorative alphabets and initials, plate 96, Dover Publications, 1959. my blurred vision saw only an old nally responded favourably to Bucke’s per- It may be that the greatest bond between man, full of common sense and kindly sistent suggestion that the bedridden poet Bucke and Osler was books -- reading feelings, Bucke felt himself in the pres- move to a location where he would receive them, writing them, and above all, collect- ence of one of the world’s great proph- better medical care. Bucke then states: ing them. Both were avid readers of contem- ets, One evening after dinner at the porary literature, the classics, philosophy, Rittenhouse Club with Dr. Chapin, Dr. I wrote to Osler at Johns Hopkins ask- and the newest scientific treatises of their Tyson, Dr. J.K. Mitchell and a few oth- ing him whether W. could be received age. Both wrote articles and books, (11) and ers who I knew would appreciate him, there as a pay patient - what the rates most significantly for the argument of this I drew Bucke on to tell the story of would be & c. I have just received essay, both were prone to what Cushing in Whitman’s influence. The perfervid Osler’s answer this afternoon saying his biography terms Osler’s “infection with disciple, who talks like [Chaerephon] there would be no difficulty about W’s the bibliomania “ .(12) ..To grasp the relevance in the [Apology] is not often met with in reception and that the pay for every- of this “disease”, we must return to Osler’s these matter-of-fact days. It was an ex- thing would be about $25 a week. (10) memories of his first visit to Whitman, re- perience to hear an elderly man - corded in B.O. 7660, and transcribed in looking a venerable seer ---- with abso- But Whitman changed his mind about Cushing’s biography. lute abandonment tell how ‘Leaves of moving to Baltimore, and the matter was After the manner of a well-trained physi- Grass’ had meant for him spiritual en- dropped. cian, Osler takes careful note of the environ- lightenment, a new power in life, new After Whitman’s death in March, 1892, ment of his patient, the simple propriety of joys in a new existence on a plane the relationship between Bucke and Osler Whitman’s house, the cheerful competence higher than he had ever hoped to continued, and indeed, grew richer and of his housekeeper, and so forth. But what reach. All this with the accompanying more personal. Bucke’s administrative as- he dwells upon most particularly is the state physical exaltation expressed by di- sistant in London, Dr. Charles Sippi, re- of the poet‘s study. lated pupils and intensity of utterance corded the following events in his 1896 that were embarrassing to uninitiated I have seen what the tidy housewife friends. This incident illustrates the calls a ‘clutter’, but nothing to compare type of influence exercised by Whit- 1992 in the centenary of the death of with the front room, ground floor of man on his disciples ----- a cult of a type the great American poet Walt Whitman, No. 328 Mickle Street. At the corner, such as no other literary man of our whom Osler attended during his years in the head and upper part of a man were generation has been the object... (6) Philadelphia. It is also the 90th anniver- visible ----- everywhere else, covering sary of the death of an almost forgotten the floor, the chairs and the table, were, This portrait of a wild-eyed Dr. Bucke Canadian “alienist” (i.e. psychiatrist) to use his own description ‘heaps of shows a less complimentary side of Osler as and writer, Richard Maurice Bucke, who books, manuscripts, memoranda, scis- well - that of a somewhat cruel jokester; became the aging Whitman’s biographer sorings, proof-sheets, pamphlets, for Osler had set up that dinner party at and publicist, as well as his physician. It newspapers, old and new magazines, Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Club to put was Dr. Bucke who arranged the Whit- mysterious literary bundles tied up Bucke’s bizarre behaviour on view for the man consult for Osler. Helene Berman with stout strings’. The magazines and amusement of his fellow physicians -- Fallen, the Hamilton, Ontario-based newspapers, piled higher than the Whitman admirers perhaps, but not Whit- author of the lead article for this issue of desk, covered the floor so completely man devotees. the Newsletter, is an independent re- that I had to pick my way by the side However, in another part of the original searcher and radio journalist, associated of the wall of the room to get to the manuscript of Osler’s centenary address, a with the History of Medicine pro- desk. (13) very different assessment of Bucke is found, gramme at McMaster University. She has one that makes the friendship or collegiality conducted research on Bucke, and has After Whitman’s death, Bucke was between these two prominent Canadian written a CBC radio documentary on named one of Whitman’s three literary ex- doctors more understandable. Here Osler Anne Wilkinson, the Canadian poet who ecutors, and until his accidental death in acknowledges that Bucke is a mystic, but in was William Osler’s niece. 1902, he was the most productive one. He his words, “a mystic with one foot planted collected and edited two posthumous Whit- firmly in mother earth ". (7) The professional diary, now preserved in the Bucke Collec- man publications, Calamus: A Series of Letters part of that earthly stance that Osler deeply tion at the University of Western Ontario: Written During the Years 1868-1889 to a Young respects is Bucke’s work as superintendent Friend and The Wounddresser: A Series of Let- of the Asylum for the Insane in London. Feb. 7. Dr. Osler of Johns Hopkins Uni- ters Written from the Hospital in Washington versity Balt. was expected here today during the War of the Rebellion. These works, Here he (Bucke) carried out more suc- to go to Sarnia with Dr. Bucke but he certainly glanced at by Osler, brought new cessfully than at any institution I have missed connections at Philadelphia admirers to Whitman, and particularly in visited the non-restraint method of and will not be here until 2 o’clock to- the last twenty-five years, have been re- treatment. It was a revelation, indeed a morrow. sponsible for much goundbreaking work by unique experience ----- to pass from Feb. 8. Dr. Bucke went to Sarnia this Whitman scholars. However, among the ward to ward from block to block with- morning with Dr. Osler of Baltimore to surviving correspondence between Osler out a key. Neither bolt nor bar, nor pad- see Mr. R.S. Gurd. and Bucke is a note from Osler, dated Sep- ded room! (8) Feb. 10. Dr. Will Osler agreed in the tember 15, 1899, concerning another book, diagnosis made by Dr. Bucke in the Notes and Fragments, Bucke’s self-published Even as medical men, Osler and Bucke case of R.S. Gurd & gave no hope of presentation, organized and annotated, of manifested differences of temperament. recovery materials which Osler had described as Thus Osler, always sanguine with patients, “clutter”, and which had come to Bucke as felt that “Bucke was a bit too solicitous It would have been a very long and cold Whitman’s literary executor. Osler wrote: about Whitman’s health...“ (9) Nonetheless, winter’s journey from Baltimore to a city after his 1889 move to Baltimore, Osler con- sixty miles from Toronto, and thence to an- Dear Bucke:- tinued to confer with Bucke by mail and other town half that distance away. Yet Osler I enclose the five dollars, though I have offer support as Bucke agonized over his graciously made the trip to consult in the not yet seen the Fragment, as I have patient’s suffering. In a letter to Whitman’s case of one R.S. Gurd, who happened to be only just returned this morning. I have secretary Horace Traubel, dated January an in-law of his friend, Maurice Bucke. found several enthusiastic Waltites in 1889, Bucke reports that Whitman had fi- England.

2 I hope you are well and happy. NOTES was a frequent contributor of historical arti- Sincerely yours, cles to medical journals, and to Jewish re- Wm. 0sler (14) 1. Nine authorized editions of Leaves of Grass were views such as Midstream. We will miss published, from Whitman’s startling 1855 edition, a 95 seeing him poring over the “newly re- Though still not a Waltite in terms of lit- page, 12-section work with a 12 page preface, self-pub- ceived” shelves in the Osler Library, and erary taste (” ‘twas not for my pampered lished, to the 438 page so-called Deathbed Edition of regaling us with his latest projects and opinions. 1892. See Gay Wilson Allen’s A Reader’s Guide to Walt Another sad passage to record is that of palate, accustomed to Plato and Shake- Whitman (1970) Chapter III for more information. (15) speare and Shelley and Keats” ), Osler 2. The Whitman biographies by Gay Wilson Allen Dr. F.C. (“Hank”) McIntosh, long-time chair had evidently become somewhat hooked on (1955) and Justin Kaplan (1980) vividly present the ailing of the Department of Physiology in this Uni- collecting Whitmaniana. In 1900, he Whitman. Allen’s biography includes the autopsy report, versity, and an assiduous historian of 20th quearied Bucke about “anything good in printed originally in In Re Walt Whitman (1893), a collec- century physiology. Dr. McIntosh has left any of the early Whitman editions”. (16) tion of essays edited by Whitman’s three literary execu- his files of primary research and historical In 1919, Osler was busy organizing his tors: Bucke, Horace Traubel and Thomas Harned. documentation to the Osler Library, and library which he planned to bequeath to Resources for Whitman’s view of Osler and Bucke in- these are already beginning to attract schol- McGill. Thus books and bibliographical is- clude all the volumes of Horace Traubel’s With Whitman arly interest. His stimulating inquiries and in Camden (see #10) and two articles by William White: sues were much on his mind. His summer “Walt Whitman on Osler: He is a Great Man”, reprinted provocative observations - to say nothing work on the Whitman centenary talk from Bulletin of the History of Medicine , vol. 15, No. 1, of those Physiology laboratory oyster par- brought back his experiences with Whitman January, 1944 and “Whitman’s Dr. Bucke" Walt Whitman ties -will always remain precious memories. and his “clutter”, and more deeply, memo- Review 23,4 (December 1977). ries of his exceptional friend Bucke, who 3. George Herbert Stevenson’s paper, “Bucke and RECENT VISITORS TO THE OSLER had died shortly after the publication of his Osler: A Personality Study” which was reprinted in The LIBRARY magnus opus, Cosmic Consciousness. Osler Canadian Medical Association Journal, vol. 44, 183-188, 1941 may have been using his copy of Bucke’s provides valuable clues to the Osler-Bucke relationship. The Osler Library was the happy benefi- Notes and Fragments along with Bucke’s Walt 4. Cushing, H. The Life of Sir William Osler. Oxford: ciary of a certain spill-over from the Con- Clarendon Press, 1925. Vol. II, 1352. (l7) grès international de philosophie médiévale Whitman as an aid in writing his address. 5. Cushing, H. op.cit., Vol. I, 264. In any case, displaying one the last flashes 6. Cushing, H. op.cit., Vol. I, 266. held in Ottawa during the last week of Au- of his collecting spirit, Osler seems to have 7. Osler, W. Bibliotheca Osleriana Montreal and Lon- gust, when scholars of international renown made a bid to locate, and perhaps acquire don: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1969, #7660, 3. took the opportunity to come to Montreal to the “clutter”. Inserted in B.O. 7660 is a letter, 8. Osler, W. op.cit., 3. see the Library’s medieval manuscripts. Dr. dated October 1919, from J.W. Wallace, a 9. Osler, W. op.cit., 5. Charles Burnett of the Warburg Institute, member of the inner circle of English Whit- 10. Traubel, Horace, With Walt Whitman in Camden, University of London, not only passed a manities Bucke had helped to establish September 15, 1889 -- July 6,1890 (6), ed. by Gertrude morning in the company of our ancient sci- years earlier. It reveals that Osler had be- Traubel and William White. Carbondale and Ed- entific and medical books, but alerted a wardsville: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982, 272. friend, Dr. Italo Ronca of the University of come interested in the whereabouts of the 11. A listing of Bucke’s books and his papers and “clutter”. articles on medical matters, as well as other subjects Pretoria, to the fact that the Library holds a (including Walt Whitman) have been included in Richard most unusual alchemical manuscript. This I am sorry that my answer to your Maurice Bucke, the 1977 catalogue edited by Mary Ann is Bibl. Osl. 480, the pseudo-Avicenna Liber questions about Dr. Bucke’s Whitman Jameson and published by The Libraries, The University Abuali Abincine. Dr. Ronca, an expert on material must be so unsatisfactory. His of Western Ontario, London, Canada. Present readers medieval alchemy, promptly moved into family shared none of his literary inter- would find two of Bucke’s books Man’s Moral Nature the Osler Library for three days to pore over ests, and after his death all his books (1879) and Cosmic Consciousness (1901) have been fairly this unique manuscript and consult our ref- and papers were stored away in boxes continuous reprinted. Both are based on an ameliorative erence works on the history of alchemy. He and apparently remain there still! evolutionary model: the first positing a theory of the promises to return, a promise which we improvement through time of man’s emotional (moral) nature, based in the great sympathetic nervous system; hope shall soon be fulfilled. In fact, most of Bucke’s massive Whitman and the second, still in print and variously treated by On September 28, the Osler Library was collection, distributed among his children, several Canadian scholars including Ramsay Cook, Cyril delighted to welcome a very distinguished did not become available until 1935, when Greenland, Artem Lozsinsky, Sam Shortt, suggests by visitor, Dr. Mirko Grmek. One of the most it was auctioned. By then, Whitman’s repu- “case studies” an increase through recorded time of in- productive and diverse medical historians tation as THE great American poet was dividuals exhibiting a fifth sense, “cosmic conscious- of recent decades, Dr. Grmek held, until his emerging. Through the initial buyer and ness”, either partially or fully. Osler’s good friend and recent retirement, the chair of medical his- subsequent resales, the major Whitman col- eminent psychologist William James included Bucke’s tory at the École Pratique des Hautes Études lections, especially those at Duke Univer- thesis in his Varieties of Religious Experience (1902). in Paris. He is the author and editor of nu- 12. Cushing, H. op.cit., Vol. I, 579. sity, the Berg Collection at the New York 13. Cushing, H. op.cit., Vol. I, 264. merous books, of which the best known are Public Library, and the Library of Congress 14. Stevenson, G.H., Bucke and Osler: A Personality Les maladies à l’aube de la civilisation (1983; in Washington, have been stocked. Study”, 12. Read at the seventy-first meeting of the Canadian translated into English as Diseases in the An- It is tempting to speculate that had his Medical Association, Section of Historical Medicine, Toronto cient Greek World, Raisonnement expérimental et own death not intervened, Osler would on June 19, 1940 and reprinted as indicated at note #3. recherches toxicologiques chez Claude Bernard have followed up the clue in Wallace’s letter, 15. Cushing, H. op.cit. , Vol. I, 265. (1973), and most recently, Histoire du sida and made a personal appeal to the Bucke 16. Stevenson, G.H. op.cit., (1990; translated as History of AIDS ). Prof. family for the Whitman papers. And if Osler 17. Notes and Fragments was not included in Bibliotheca Grmek was at McGill to deliver the Astra had managed to acquire them, a tantalizing Osleriana. Like most of the purely literary works in Lectures in Ethics at the Centre for Medi- Osler's library, it was probably given away or sold fol- question arises: Where would he have lowing Lady Osler’s death. cine, Ethics and Law; he also spoke to Croa- placed them? In the Osler Library? At an tian cultural groups, and was the guest of American institution? In a suitable reposi- PASSAGES honour at a special dinner organized by tory in London, Ontario, in memory of his Mrs. Zlata Blazina, Research Associate of Canadian friend and colleague, Whitman We are deeply saddened by the passing the Osler Library. Dr. Grmek divided his champion and caretaker, Maurice Bucke? away of Dr. Philip Eibel on October 5, 1992. time almost equally between looking at our Dr. Eibel was a long-time habitué of the medieval manuscripts and learning how to Osler Library and a tireless and talented use the computerized Library System cata- medical historian. Only a few months ago, logue! It was difficult to say which seemed he was using our collection of Paris theses to delight him more. to research the history of circumcision. He

3 NEW COLLECTIONS DEVELOPMENT riological and therapeutic discoveries brary for your imaginative generosity. With GRANT FOR THE OSLER LIBRARY which would transform the fight against in- this issue of the Newsletter, we are launching fectious diseases. our appeal for 1992. Your help and support Over the past decade, the Osler Library Communicable disease is a major collec- are now, perhaps more than ever, vital to us. has been awarded three Collections Devel- tions priority for the Osler Library Thanks opment Grants by the Social Sciences and to Sir William’s collection, we already pos- Faith Wallis Humanities Research Council of Canada, all sess many of the classics of infectious dis- for the acquisition of primary historic works ease literature. Our aim with this new grant on the social context of medicine. The first is to deepen and diversify this classic core. (1984-1985) was limited to France in the 19th century, the second to Western Europe from Faith Wallis the 16th to the 19th centuries, and the third to North America - but all shared a com- THE FRIENDS OF THE OSLER mon topical definition. Books were pur- LIBRARY: A REPORT AND AN APPEAL chased which reflected issues where the medical profession and medical practice im- With each passing year, the contributions pinged upon government, social policy and of the Friends of the Osler Library make planning, political action, and the legal sys- possible an increasingly diverse array of tem. They covered subjects such as public purchases and possibilities for the Library. health, in as far as physicians attempted to The major priority is, of course, new acqui- persuade political leaders to enact policies sitions, particularly acquisition of rare or involving disease control and sanitation; le- costly works which would, without the gal medicine, i.e. the involment of the medi- Friends‘ generosity, be beyond our means. cal profession in defining and detecting This year, outstanding historic works pur- crime; institutional organization and public chased with funds from the Friends of the recognition of the medical profession; and Osler Library include G. Mauran, Essai sur popular medical education, i.e. the drive by les maladies qui attaquent le plus communément the medical profession to extend its influ- les gens de mer (Marseille, 1766), C.N. Le Cat, ence over the public consciousness of health Traité de la couleur de la peau humaine... de celle issues. However, in the course of building des nègres en particulier (Amsterdam, 1765 - up our social medicine collections with the an interesting chapter in the early history of assistance of these grants, we soon became racism), Anne Charles de Lorry’s De melan- aware of the special position of infectious cholia et morbis melancholicis (Paris, 1765 - disease within this constellation of subjects. probably the most important psychiatric Infectious disease, whether transmitted treatise published in France in the 18th cen- directly from human to human or conveyed tury), and a classic of physiognomy, The by vectors in the human environment, is Works of Professor [Peter] Camper, on the Con- fundamentally a social phenomenon. Medi- nection between the Science of Anatomy and the cal efforts to allay such diseases invariably Arts of Drawing, Painting, Statuary etc. etc. stimulate criticism of social institutions and (London, 1794). I would like to draw special practices, or of elements within society, attention to the Le Cat volume, because it which are identified-as causes of the disease supports the research on the history of race (etiology). They also invoke prescriptions consciousness in Enlightenment France be- concerning public policy or social behav- ing conducted by Prof. Pierre Boulle of the iour, or proposals for governmental coer- History Department and his students. The cion (e.g. universal vaccination) as a means Friends may take special pride in knowing by which society can prevent infectious dis- that their books are not only adding to the ease (prophylaxis). Finally, they create a de- patrimony of the Osler Library but are also mand for strategies for the social directly stimulating the use of the Library management of outbreaks of infectious dis- by scholars and students. ease, including coercive measures such as Acquisitions are only one chapter in the quarantine (control). These social issues are Friends’ story, however. Friends’ funds have the focus of some of the most interesting enabled Library staff to attend conferences, and topical scholarship in contemporary paid student help for diverse Library pro- medical history; it is also a subject of imme- jects, contributed to the elegant new shelv- diate concern in our own society, as the ing in the Wellcome Camera Mezzanine, AIDS crisis focusses our attention on the and this year, have underwritten the pro- ways in which discussions of medical etiol- duction of the second volume of Osler Li- ogy, prophylaxis and control can be socially brary Studies in the History of Medicine, Dr. and politically manipulated. Richard Golden‘s Oslerian Verse, which will The new grant of $20,000 will enable the shortly be rolling off the presses. Without Library to acquire, over a period of two the Friends, of course, this Newsletter could Editorial Committee for the Newsletter: years, primary works published in western not be printed and mailed to its 1500 read- Faith Wallis, Osler Librarian and Editor; Europe and North America between 1600 ers, nor could countless small, but necessary Edward H. Bensley, Honorary Osler Li- and 1900 on the etiology, prophylaxis and items not provided for in our regular brarian and Consulting Editor; Wayne Le- control of infectious disease. The chrono- budget be purchased. Bel, Assistant History of Medicine logical frame was chosen in order to include Whether it is a big-ticket rare book, or a Librarian and Assistant Editor; Lily the final major outbreaks of Europe’s most unglamorous, but crucially important piece Szczygiel, Editorial Assistant. long-lived epidemic, plague, as well as the of computer equipment, the Friends’ gifts to careers of “new” diseases such as Asiatic the Library are essential to our survival and Legal Deposit 3/ 1992 ISSN 0085-4557 cholera (introduced in 1828); the closing growth. I offer you all, simply and very sin- date of 1900 marks the era of major bacte- cerely, profound thanks on behalf of the Li-

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