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When Lewis Thomas[1] was a young boy, he sometimes joined his father when he was making house calls. He observed a brilliant country doctor at work long before there were antibiotics or sulfa drugs.

His father practiced the art of medicine. He had basically 3 main weapons in his arsenal:

1. He was a great diagnostician.

He could tell, in a glance, the patient’s weight within 5 pounds.

He could tell if the blush in the cheek was evidence that the crisis was over, or that the patient would die that same day.

He had seen and treated all the known diseases at the time, many of which are so rare now that a young doctor today may never have seen a patient with the measles, or tuberculosis, or poliomyelitis.

2. He knew the importance of touch.

“Mrs. Smith, may I hold your hand?” he would ask.

“Yes, doctor, you may.”

He felt the pulse and the temperature. He palpated the chest and the stomach, listened for abnormalities with his stethoscope and asked about onset of symptoms.


He could see in the corner of his eye the hygiene of the household, the order, or disorder, of their lives, and he already knew the medical history of everyone.

[1] Thomas, Lewis: The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Series), Penguin Books; Reprint edition (May 1, 1995), The Lives of a Cell: Notes of a Biology Watcher, Penguin Books; Reissue edition (January 1, 1995).