FORENSIC LIMERICKS

1.

The science of Medicine Forensic

has applications prolific

It's the use of medicine

For detection of sin,

There's little to do with treatment of the sick

2.

There was a woman from a nation,

Who had twins and to one's consternation,

One was black, the other white,

A truly awkward sight,

Sure enough, it was superfecundation.

(Both of the above composed by Professor Anil Aggrawal)

The limericks may not be very elegant, but I composed these to show what can be done with this new genre. Could you contribute more limericks of better quality please?

3.

Henceforth the trouble begins

For the careless lady who sins

her spouse may request

the HLA test

in case of biovular twins

N.B. This limerick appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 300, No. 1, Jan 4, 1979 at page 50 in response to an earlier paper Twins with two different fathers identified by HLA by Paul I. Terasaki Ph.D. et al, appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine Vol. 299, No. 11, Sept 14, 1978 at pages 590-592. This is one of the rare examples of a medical limerick appearing in a respectable medical journal. If you are aware of more examples, kindly let me know. Thanks.

OTHER LIMERICKS IN SCIENCE

During my younger days, it was my hobby to devise science limericks. But since I don't know anything about "metres", they were almost invariably unmetred. Once I sent a whole lot of them to Khushwant Singh, the famous Indian writer, and quite surprisingly he reproduced two of them in the weekly magazine Sunday of 30 August - 5 September 1987, at page 9 (with acknowledgement to me of course). That assured me that at least those two were alright. I am reproducing those two here for the benefit (?) of readers.

1.

There was a computer scientist from London

Who had with binary digits lots of fun

When asked his age

Replied the sage

"I'm 100001"

2.

There was a young prodigy from Sevagram

Who was muttering PQR... in his pram

Said a guest, "He's precocious"

Replied his father, "Yes!

These days he is learning electrocardiogram."