The first of the fortunate

The patient was a retired professional musician in his late 60s. He smoked and drank more than was good for him and had a particular penchant for brandy. He had had a discharging sinus on his left leg from chronic osteomyelitis for as long as anybody could remember.

“I was used as a guinea pig for testing penicillin when I was young,” he told me proudly one day.

“A hazard of living in Oxford,” I joked, thinking about the many requests for recruits for scientific studies that we receive in this small, university-dominated city.

My …