Hard and fast

In the spring of 1857, I, with several friends, left Hongkong for Shanghai, viâ Foochow, in the small coasting steamer Antelope. No noteworthy incident occurred until after leaving Foochow when, as we were enjoying our after dinner coffee and cigars, and by chance discussing the question of thirteen sitting down at table that had occurred at a dinner at which one of the party had shortly before been present, a violent thump and tremulous motion of the vessel announced the unpleasant fact that we had struck upon something. We rushed on deck and found the steamer hard and fast on a reef near Matsu Island. Fortunately the day was fine and there was no sea on.

Many doctors, and indeed the F.D.A., say they are going to wait for a 4,400-patient study that is under way before they draw hard and fast conclusions, but those results won't be due until 2009.