The greatest diagnostic challenge for a neurologist is spotting an unusual or rare disorder, particularly if it is treatable, and the greatest pleasure is in doing this quickly and efficiently where others have failed. My own highlight came when I diagnosed my first and only case of Wilson's disease which caused the extraordinary elation that this was just what I had been trained to do over all those years of unrelenting toil as a junior hospital doctor! It is this diagnostic ability which can make neurologists seem like magicians in the eyes of some, at least those who don't realise that it is mostly a …