ABSTRACT
Generalists can be arraigned on charges of soppiness and sloppiness. It can be alleged that the breadth of their clinical responsibilities compromises their competence so far that they become ineffectual or, at worst, dangerous. The defence would argue that this need not be the case; and, furthermore, that over-attention to the physical substrate of ill-health militates against appreciating the mental, social and cultural contexts in which real people experience illness. Hans Christian Andersen - free, mature, blessed with imagination - can respect the thoroughness of the inchworm's activity. He can also see it in a wider context: one where what the creature is measuring also has immeasurable qualities that, could it but notice them, would give it pause and open its eyes to the mystery and loveliness of its surroundings. The gaze of the 'big picture physicist' can, if necessary, shift away from the everyday to the world of the infinitesimally small or the astronomically large.
