On December 31, 1968, Donald W. Davis received U.S. Patent No. 3,418,999, on a method of swallowing a pill:

The method of swallowing a pill comprises the steps of (1) taking a single swallowable amount of a liquid in the mouth together with a pill having a density in the range from about 0.4 to about 0.95, and a volume in the range from about 0.2 cubic centimeters to about 1.7 cubic centimeters; and then (2) bowing the head downwardly and forwardly while retaining said liquid and pill in the mouth, and then swallowing same while the head is held in said downwardly bowed position and the pill is floating near the back of the mouth.

This New Year’s Eve patent on a pill-swallowing method arrives just in time for anyone who plans to ring in the new year a little too enthusiastically—and needs to swallow something besides their pride.