Physical Diagnosis: The History and Examination of the Patient, by John A. Prior and Jack S. Silberstein, 436 pp, 454 illus, $10.50, St. Louis: C. V. Mosby Co., 1969.
The art of examination must be acquired by hard experience. No words can conjure up the sensation of vocal fremitus, or the feeling of a tumor deep in the abdomen. All the same, a student about to enter clinical medicine needs expert guidance.
The clinical world is an abnormal one, and initiation is necessary. In it, the student must relate to many people whom it would be his predisposition to avoid, and must take physical liberties far beyond the bounds of ordinary social contact. At the same time he is forced to preserve an emotional detachment which would prove fatal to any regular relationship.
Morgan and Engel have prepared their initiation manual carefully, profiting by their experience in running introductory clinical