Table 3.
Clinical Pearls and Memorable Statements in Parker’s 1956 book Clinical Studies in Neurology2
| Clinical pearl/memorable statement | Page number |
|---|---|
| “A cut skin heals in six days, a broken bone in six weeks, but a damaged nerve may take six months or more.” | 11 |
| [When checking sensation] “always [work] from the area of diminished sensibility to that area where feeling is normal.” | 16 |
| “The old term, ‘paralysis agitans,’ [instead of Parkinson disease] should never be used. Its inexactitude lies in the fact that such patients are never paralyzed and not always do they shake.” | 23 |
| “Fasciculation plays over both upper extremities and chest muscles like trout jumping in a pool on a sullen day in May.” | 42 |
| “At an early age we learn that the highest point in neurology is testing sensation, and that the Mount Everest of all our laborious climbing comes in syringomyelia. Tabes dorsalis runs a close second.” | 43 |
| “In chronic subdural hematoma there may be no history of injury, in that it has been so slight that the patient has forgotten it.” | 50 |
| “As I passed that famous tavern of Davy Byrnes in Anne Street this morning, I remembered a character here called Soapy Mouth Burke. He had a habit of chewing soap until a liberal froth was engendered. Then he would fall suddenly on the street corner nearest Davy's place of refreshment, convulse in a scientifically accurate fashion and surround himself with a crowd of helpful, sympathetic folk. Coming out of his fit he would gasp, ‘Surgeon MacCarthy told me many a time that if I had one of them fits in the street, I was to be brought directly to Mister Byrnes' public house and made take three glasses of raw brandy!’” | 69 |
| “In the case of adolescents, a long skinny hobbledehoy may pass out at a long church session, from the effects of emotion, an empty stomach and standing for long intervals.” | 85 |
| “The so-called ‘whisky fits’ [alcohol withdrawal seizures] occur while a patient is recovering from an orgy of drink, and not during the actual period of imbibing.” | 87 |
| “I should like to advise you never, never to tell a patient with headaches that you suffer similarly, hoping so to give him the idea that because of personal experiences you have a more than sympathetic viewpoint with regard to his disease.” | 107 |
| “In public bars … [this patient with essential tremor] has to hold his glass with both hands, but he adds that as the evening progresses one only is sufficient.” | 116 |
| “We can not be too rigid in this prognostication [of inherited disorders], for even, at times, the peas fooled Mendel.” | 119 |
| “The inability to chew and the drooping lower jaw are pathognomonic signs of myasthenia gravis.” | 130 |
| [To a student who suggested doing a spinal tap on a patient with symptoms/signs of a cerebellar tumor with papilledema]: “The child would then be dead, dead, dead. And you, my friend, would be the executioner.” | 141 |
| “Length means vulnerability; therefore the long thoracic nerve is more easily injured, as are the sixth intracranial nerve and the sciatic.” | 145 |
| “The medulla oblongata and pons represent a crowded area of vital structures and do not suffer disease gladly.” | 154 |
| [A patient with tabes dorsalis] “walks like a cat on hot sand, lifting his feet too high each time he takes a step.” | 190 |
| [Advice to graduating medical students]: “You must remember one thing first, second and last, and that is to be kind, both to your patients and to your fellow craftsmen, above you, with you, or beneath you.” | 361 |