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AD LIBITUM

Ceruloplasmin

H. J. Van Peenen

15 January 1993 | Volume 118 Issue 2 | Page 154

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Among the handful of ocular signs given as jewels
on the day of our initiation—the opacities,
pigments, iritides, cups—we best remember
the only one we will never find, a ring.

It tells this protein's absence. Multiple choice
designed to ferret out what we know about
zinc-collectors or haptoglobin would fail us but
always these blue vowels leap from the

treasure chest of memory. Sky-granted, the name
comes like a password to our tongues whenever livers
scar or limbs leap into fits although none of us,
thinking of it in diagnosis, proves its guilt.

Despite the metaphor our sergeants teach us,
hoofbeats are never horses, and that is why
every patient we see remains a mystery,
a puzzle, exotic, exciting, as nothing is

in the day-to-day, and must have a rare disease
worthy of us who have been anointed and touched
by the serpent's tongue, and given jeweled words
to pass us freely through the temple gates.

Article    Table of Contents                  Services    Send comment/rapid response letter    Notify a friend about this article    Alert me when this article is cited    Add to Personal Archive    Download to Citation Manager    ACP Search                            Get Permissions  Google Scholar    Search for Related Content  PubMed Articles in PubMed by Author:    Van Peenen, H. J.    PubMed