It might indeed be folklore that ganglia can be reduced by a sharp whack from the family Bible (Letters, 19 September). However, in the late 1950s, I recall my mother attacking her wrist ganglion with Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management, which was considered more suitable in a Methodist household. It clearly did the trick: Mum is still alive, at 96, and the ganglion is long gone.
Susan Treagus
Manchester
• Back in 1970, after several months of wringing out nappies by hand, I developed a lump on the inside of my wrist. The doctor said it was a ganglion and that as I looked a stoical type she would try an old cottage remedy. She didn’t have a Bible to hand but would hit my wrist hard with a copy of Gray’s Anatomy. I put my wrist on the edge of the desk and she whacked it very hard. I saw stars momentarily, but when I looked down the ganglion was gone. The doctor looked much calmer too; it was obviously good for her stress level. The ganglion never returned. But I did get a washing machine for baby number two.
Maureen Wood
Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire
• The first letter above was amended on 22 September 2016 to correct the spelling of Mrs Beeton.
