"don't think zebras"

[Dan Goncharoff]

I don't know about philosophers. Within the medical profession it is
credited to Dr. Theodore Woodward of the University of Maryland:

http://www.zebracards.com/a-intro_inventor.html

DanG

On 2/19/2010 7:56 AM, Charles Doyle wrote:
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Charles Doyle<cdoyle at UGA.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: "don't think zebras"
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the files of the in-progress _Yale Book of Modern Proverbs_, we have this:
>
> 1969  John A. Koepke, _Guide to Clinical Laboratory Diagnosis_ (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts) 79:  "These three causes [of edema] should always be prime considerations, and after they have been ruled out, other less common causes may be considered.  As one 'philosopher' put it:  'When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras.'"
>
> I don't know who the cited "philosopher" is.
>
> Of course, the saying is a figurative statement of the so-called "principle of parsimony," a correlary of "Ockham’s razor."
>
> --Charlie
>
>
>
> ---- Original message ----
>
>> Date: Thu, 18 Feb 2010 21:35:25 -0500
>> From: American Dialect Society<ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>  (on behalf of victor steinbok<aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>)>
>> More GB, with alternative search strings:
>>
>> 1971
>> Medical Laboratory Technology, vol 28--date is accurate: Harvard
>> Medical School has these starting with vol. 28, which is tagged as
>> 1971.
>>
>> p. 339--reviewing an unknown (from the snippet) paper, the authors states:
>>
>>
>>> The author's final words are apt — "when you hear hoofbeats think of horses, not zebras" or alternatively common things most commonly occur.
>>>
>> 1973
>> Journal of Medical Education, vol 48, p. 1167 (date/volume match
>> confirmed, but text not verified) The snippet is a bit cryptic:
>>
>>
>>> ... the resident must still continue to think of all the possible disease ... is considered first; "if there are hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras. ...
>>>
>> 1979
>> Problem Solving in Clinical Medicine, p. 27
>>
>>
>>> And if you hear the galloping of hooves, think of horses, not zebras — unless you are in East Africa.
>>>
>> There are some other minor variations (not all prescriptive), but all
>> other pre-1980 citations mention doctors, in general, (as do most
>> post-1980 ones) save one which attributes the saying to an unnamed
>> "philosopher" (quotation marks in the original).
>>
>> NOTE: citations not verified; I have not search any news archives
>>
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