Topic

The new academic year started after the public holiday. On the next day, I had the pleasure to do the first medical grand round of this year with VW.

Our professor of hepatology has already outlined what happened in his blog. (See http://vwswong.blogspot.hk/2013/07/photos.html) Just to set the record straight, it was my friend himself who first suggested rather than the boring subject of final examination, we should discuss a more interesting  topic.

"For example, you should talk about detective fictions." He said.

In no time I thought about cocaine abuse (Sherlock Holmes and S.S. van Dine), transient global amnesia (Agatha Christie), rheumatoid arthritis (Hercule Poirot), and tertiary syphilis (the Hatter family). No, none of them is sufficiently eye-catching for a presentation.

"Alas, it would be your expertise to talk about Mozart," I decided to throw the ball back, "In that case, I may have to do Beethoven." After all, while Mozart most probably died of a kidney disease, it was liver problem that took Beethoven.

It all sounds a great idea - except the fact that my knowledge on music is kindergarten level.

PS. The name Hatter is a brilliant idea per se and Ellery Queen did try to give an obvious hint to his readers. Chronic mercury poisoning was, in the old days, known as mad hatter disease.