All out

[Johnyxxx]

Hello,


I am not sure if I understand the bold text. Cam is probably Cambridge but I do not know how to approach the phrase all out in the context. Could it be a variation of all-in, that is weary or tired?


Some important glands, of course, rule a man's whole life. Others again--what use is a lymphatic to the soul? To "x."? Well, we must deal with the glands in detail, at the fountain-head, in the brain. My writing seems to irritate him. Daren't give drugs. He flushes and pales too easily. Absence of skull? Now, a little cut and tie--and we shall see. N.B.--To keep this record very distinct from the pure surgery of the business. A concentrated, sustained yell. It has quite shaken me. I never heard the like. "All out" too, as we used to say on the Cam; he's physically exhausted--e.g., has stopped kicking. Legs limp as possible. Pure funk; I never hurt him.


Aleister Crowley, The Soul Hunter, 1909


Thanks a lot.

 

[Tarheel]

Yes, I think "all out" means the individual is exhausted.

 

[Roman55]

Cam is probably Cambridge

The Cam is the river running through Cambridge, hence the name.

 

[teechar]

Cam is probably Cambridge.

Presumably it's a reference to the River Cam, whence Cambridge gets its name.

 

[Johnyxxx]

The Cam is the river running through Cambridge, hence the name.

I expressed myself badly; I did not mean the city; I wanted to say the Cam stood for the University of Cambridge (where the doc had probably studied).

 

[bhaisahab]

"on the Cam" refers to the river. Crowley studied at Cambridge.

 

[BobK]

:up: And 'all out' works two ways (no - three). It's the command that the cox gives to make all the rowers in a boat take the blades of their oars out of the water at the same time. As there are 4 each side (in an eight - the name for a boat that contains 8 oarsmen and a cox (in 1909 they would have been oarsmen) it's important to synchronise he two sides. As the oarsmen will be all out (in the sense you guessed at in the OP), the boat will be travelling very fast (as they've been making their "all out" final effort); so an error will seriously unbalance the boat - possibly even make it capsize. (They're very finely balanced, and the crew have to be very careful - experto crede [which is Latin for "Believe me, I know what I'm talking about" ;-).)

b