Contributor: Robert (Buzz) Gibbs

The housestaff all learned of Dr. Stead's interest in spider angiomata early in our Medicine experience. However, to a second year student embarking on physical diagnosis, this was not always passed along quickly enough. So on the afternoon that Herb Sieker could not meet his group in physical diagnosis, we were surprised when Dr. Stead met our class on Osler Ward.

I presented my patient as completely as possible and readied to answer any questions he might have. Although most of the presentation had been on heart sounds, history and all the 'main' areas, the question I got from the professor was simply, "Does she have any liver spots?"

Almost instantly I was there with the answer, "Yes, she does."

Dr. Stead then asked me to demonstrate and I pointed to several brown freckled areas on the dorsum of the patient's hands.

Dr. Stead: "Who told you those were liver spots?"

"My Mother," I answered. "She has always called them liver spots."

He smiled and said, "The world belongs to the young."

And that was how I taught the Professor just what liver spots really were.