Medicine: How Big Was Your Tumor?

Physicians and surgeons are supposedly trained in accurate measurements, but in Indianapolis hospital records Dr. Frederic W. Taylor found these descriptions of excised tumors:

Egg, small egg, duck egg, goose egg, guinea egg, robin’s egg, pigeon egg, quail egg, small pullet’s egg, banty egg; walnut, English walnut, hulled walnut, hull of walnut, pecan acorn, unhulled walnut; grain of corn, few grains of maize, bean, navy bean, pea, lentil seed, soup bean; orange, small orange, lemon, small lemon, lime, grapefruit, half grape, melon, dried prune, stuffed olive; dollar, dime, nickel, quarter, half a dollar, dollar and a half; saucer, dinner plate; pencil point, BB shot; third of a baseball, football-sized mass, volley ball; fist, hand, thumb, child’s fist, man’s head, baby’s head.