"don't think zebras"

[Garson O'Toole]

1977 June 14, Modesto Bee. (Google News Archive full view)

I understand that in some medical schools one of the first things
medical students are taught is, "When you hear the sound of hoofbeats,
think of horses before zebras."

This excerpt is from a letter written by "Fresno Mother" to the
medical columnist Dr. Mendelsohn.

GB has a 1976 hit but I do not know if it is real.

On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 7:37 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "don't think zebras"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I first heard my dentist say this, maybe ten years ago. I immediately asked
> him about it and he said he'd learned it in dental school (ca1980), in
> reference to preferring the simplest diagnosis first.
>
> JL
>
> On Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 7:01 PM, Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       Victor Steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: "don't think zebras"
>>
>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> There are some fun ones. Google autocomplete the quote once you type
>> "think hor". The earliest two hits seem to be 1995, attributing to
>> "Doctors at the Himalayan Rescue Association" and 1994, "The phrase
>> "Think horses, not zebras" will sound familiar to just about any
>> American-trained physician or clinical psychologist, and perhaps to
>> those who've studied those fields in other countries as well".
>>
>> I did not complete the review (scanned about 120 out of 200+), nor did I
>> try any variations. The former seems implausible, the latter--apocryphal.
>>
>>     VS-)
>>
>> On 2/18/2010 6:06 PM, Joel S. Berson wrote:
>> > Not in the Yale Book of Quotations nor a couple of recent Oxford
>> > books of quotations.
>> >
>> > "When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras."
>> >
>> > Attributed in the NYT by Michiko Kakutani (Books of the Times, Feb.
>> > 16, 2010) to "the character Gil Grissom in 'CSI: Crime Scene
>> > Investigation'", and characterized by her as succinctly put by him.
>> >
>> > This must go back earlier. I've heard it attributed to real doctors
>> > but I don't know how long ago.
>> >
>> > What say the industrious CSInvestigators?
>> >
>> > Joel
>> >
>> >
>>
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>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
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