I was giving viva voce to undergraduate students. The instrument being discussed was Pinard’s fetal stethoscope.
“How do you check fetal heart rate using this instrument?” I asked.
“The room should be quiet. I will switch off the fan” she said.
“Switch the fan off?” I was confused. “Why do you switch the fan off before checking fetal heart sounds?”
“To make the room quiet” she offered.
“A room is an inanimate object. How do you make it quiet?”
I normally do not ask such questions. But the fan thing had baffled me.
“By switching off the fan” she said.
“Where did you read this piece of information” I asked, suddenly suspicious that some book had this wisdom. “Please show me the book. I am quite curious.”
She fetched her book. It was a book on Practical Gynecology and Obstetrics written by a local author, whom I knew well. She opened the book and pointed out the first instruction for using Pinard’s fetal stethoscope: ‘In a quiet room (switch off fan)’
“Since it printed in a book, I will not consider your answer wrong” I said. “But does a fan make any sounds that interfere with auscultation of fetal heart sounds? Besides, if you have a busy practice, will you keep switching the fan on and off every five minutes, as you examine a number of pregnant women?”
She kept quiet.
“Who advised you to read this book? Is it in the list of books prescribed by the university?”
“Students senior to me told me to read it” she said.
This fellow was older than me by a few years, and was reasonably intelligent, I had thought. He had a private practice of his own, and was making enough money, I had believed. If he had wall mounted or ceiling fans instead of an air conditioner in his clinic, perhaps he was not making enough money. If his fans were old and in such a bad shape that they made noises that interfered with the auscultation of fetal heart sounds, he was even worse off, despite his practice and the royalty on the books sold to all the students who were reading that book. (:-) :just joking.
