Tristram in turn interrupts, dropping "the curtain over this scene for a minute." There are two things to say that he should have said 150 pages ago; after that, the scene will continue.
First, he reminds us of his father's character, referring us to what we learned about him from his theory of names. Then he tells us of Walter's elaborate "Shandean hypothesis" — supported by references to many learned authorities — that the most important center in the brain is the medulla oblongata. This part of the head is during birth "compressed and moulded into the shape of an oblong conical piece of dough, such as a pastry-cook generally rolls up in order to make a pye of." To protect his child's brain, Walter suggests to Mrs. Shandy that she have a Cesarean delivery; "but seeing her turn as pale as ashes at the very mention of it, . . . he thought it as well to say no more of it."
The next best thing to protect his child's medulla oblongata is Dr. Slop and his "new-invented forceps." They will act as armor against the medulla's being compressed like the pastry-cooks' pie dough.
Tristram asks the reader to conjecture about how Uncle Toby got his modesty from a wound upon his groin, how Tristram "lost" his nose because of the marriage articles, how he came to be called "TRISTRAM" in opposition to his father's hypothesis, and "fifty other points." But the reader will never unravel these mysteries by himself; he must be content to wait for "a full explanation of these matters till the next year."
