The article informs us that acetanilid is a white crystalline powder that has been used since 1866 to reduce pain and fever despite its side effects such as destruction of blood cells and death. Well, that should fix pain and fever. Turns out acetanilid is converted in the body to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, which is hopefully less dangerous.

I was born a few months before the middle of the 20th century.

From about September 1956 to June 1957 I was in second grade in Eugene, Oregon. During that time my parents bought a used World Book Encyclopedia, which I now possess. It is made up partly of the 1951 and partly of the 1952 edition, both being yearly revisions of a work first published in 1947, and so surrounding the date chosen for the blog title. The World Book was intended for children and what we now call young adults, and describes the world I was born into, as it would be explained to young people.

The world we live in now is somewhat different in attitudes, lifestyles, and material objects. In this blog I intend to use the encyclopedia as a jumping-off point to discuss the past and the present through these differences.

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