ABSTRACT
A minor legend of the old country doctor was that he could diagnose a disease by smelling it when he was near one of his patients. Some lesser physicians were reputed to have diagnostic dogs as traveling companions, dogs that would bark a certain number of times when in the presence of various types of diseases. Such folklore was undoubtedly intended to account for the mysterious and sometimes miraculously intuitive powers of these specially trained healers. Present-day diagnosticians still earn formidable reputations for correctly diagnosing diseases when given only minimal pathognomonic cues. Unfortunately not much more is known today about clinical judgment than at the time of the old country doctor—sorry state of affairs indeed.
