We hear of pestilence of Biblical or Koranic proportions: plagues, locusts, famine, wars, wholesale displacement of peoples, diseases, some of which are incurable.

Engineers did not think two crankshafts could be synchronized. Wood, by splining the shafts in each gear box, proved it could be done.

I never put my axe into a stunty tree, or one that hasn't a good, fresh-looking bark; for trees have disorders just like creaters; and where's the policy of taking a tree that's sickly, any more than you'd choose a foundered horse to ride post, or ...

The Se content of liver in Ziyang County, Shaanxi Province, was significantly high, with a mean level of 3.30 = 1.21 ppm (dry matter), and serious Se intoxication in animals and human beings has occurred.