From Bryn Glover, Kirkby Malzeard, North Yorkshire, UK
Your story on a device that stimulates the vagus nerve to aid language learning prompted a memory of the so-called Alderman’s nerve, the auricular branch of the vagus (15 August, p 21). This seems to be the same part that is the focus of that device.
It is said that vagal stimulation of a sort was in use centuries ago by overindulgent aldermen at civic banquets. The application of a few drops of rose water to the earlobe was thought to trigger an increase in gut peristalsis, which would thus make room for more food.
