Bad Medicine: Clinical examination.

Abstract

I was taught medicine like it was a religion. Indeed there were many similarities. A hierarchy with different dress codes, venerated objects, its own language of incantations, and an unshakeable belief in the infallibility of it all. I would often look around at my classmates as they read their spell books and wondered if they too thought this was all just hocus-pocus. My sense of absurd wonderment was greatest when I was being instructed in the dark art of clinical examination. I tried hard to learn the steps and rituals but it was difficult, because it made less sense than the rules of Quidditch. And there was always some jumped-up SHO …