My First Patient.

        I well recall my very first day of clinical medicine.  After pre-med and two years of anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathology and various other medical sciences, I was about to see a real live patient.  My brand new stethoscope placed around my neck (we wore them differently in those days, less stylishly but ready to pop into our ears at a moments notice), my white coat pockets bulging with second hand equipment, a reflex hammer, an ophthalmoscope/otoscope, a safety pin and elastic band (for testing sharpness sensation and light touch), ready to spring into action at a moments notice.  Most important of all, was our clinical notepad to record the history we were about to practice taking from the poor  patients who  were often fatigued from repeating histories to successive groups of medical students.  Most of them were tolerant and many of them actively sympathetic, the more seasoned patients often instructing the students on how to properly take a history.