Columbia University College of Pharmacy - Apothekan Yearbook (New York, NY)

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CHEMISTRY Science is a systematized knowledge of the conditions and relations of mind and matter. Chemistry, a specialized division of the subject, is the science which treats of the properties of elementary and compound substances, and the laws which govern their relations. But the subject of chemistry serves many useful purposes. For one, it provides a basic foundation for the intelli- gent comprehension of pharmacy. The other, and equally important service it renders, is that of inducing scientific logic in the student. College chemistry was introduced to us under the tutelage of Dr. Bailey. She taught those of us who had no previous training in the subject a whole year of high school chemistry in two weeks. The pace was set. We toured the periodic table from aluminum to zirconium, and learned the laws of nature with a chemical slant. Another fundamental doctrine soon became clear: study and perseverance have no substitute. Valence, hydrolysis, ionis equili- bria, solubility product and pH became the topics of the day. In lab, the reaction be- tween sodium and water became violently evident. We had many opportunities to study the physical manifestations of the nitric acid reaction upon skin and of sodium hydroxide pellets on our notebook. Chlorine, ammonia and hyrogen sulfide fumes blended freely, but we stuck to our desks. It was not until the advent of Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis that our scien- tific integrity was questioned. Because we had entered upon chemical analyses unas- sumingly. Professor Liberman mistook this for a lack of basic understanding on our part. On one memorable occasion, in a mood of futility, he cast his famous predic- tion — You ' ll all be soda-jerks! As appren- tices, many of us can testify to the validity of this prognostication. When we came to realize that a solubility product is not ob- tained by multiplying the quantity of salt by the volume of solution in which it is dissolved, his sentiments changed. We proved ourselves in lab by restricting our titrations to wet towles, rather than carrying out the determination directly on the floor where the black background obscured the endpoint. On such a titration, an acid end- point was unerringly indicated by a hole in the cloth. Professor Liberman confided to us that plaster, falling from the ceiling into uncovered crucibles, is not accepted as a variable when calculating for sulfate. It was in our junior year, as an adjunct to our cultural reading, that Organic Chem- istry was introduced. Professor DiSomma started out with, the stepwise chlorination of ethane, which in toto consumed several notebooks. Our lecture notes soon gTew to voluminous proportions and only the more dexterous among us could copy the reac- tions as Professor DiSomma erased them. Because of the Professor ' s thorough treatment of the course, Organic Chemistry predominated throughout the year. The laboratory experiences were most reward- ing. Remembrances of the two lab sessions weekly will forever remain vivid to us. Who could forget the drawing of capillary tubes for melting point determinations and the lively ether fires, in anticipation of which we always kept a handy bag of marsh- mallows. And thoughts of Horace, the used beaker dealer, who always tossed in free stopcock grease with every trade-in, will always come to mind. If anything in the course could be attri- buted to the cause of periodic class-wide neuroses, it was the Organic exams. No bets could be placed on these tests, because everyone wanted low. Our final exam would have been better proctored by the Cadaver Corps from Hades, because as we pulled into the fifth hour, the foreboding of mortality became quite intense.

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This was the course modeled after the audience-participation type of program. Dr. Halsey, in his autobiography, Miracles Can Happen (250 pp., Van Pelt and Brown, $5.00), revealed that this actually was a method of taking the role. From the start it was clear that before passing from zoology into the upper strata of the College, we would have to work, ■ and work hard. Dr. Halsey assured us that v i if necessary he would have all of us attend r t W I ! the matinee performances of the Summer : Stock Players at Hunter. Some of our more naive individuals will attest to the candid- ft» ' «. 4 ness of that assurance. V Mfll l V Before becoming veterans of zoology, Cu SL . we mastered every level of animal society, JP i Mt from the one-celled amoeba to the complex JtSJUT- . dfl m rnnm nl. Unquestionably, the work per- formed, on the cat was the culminating point . r ,t. -Xv ' .-Xv X „ : v : : Xv.-.-x-XvX-Xi. ■ i i i Loan Me Some Plugs. ol the course, tor here, in a highly complex animal which closely simulated man, the striking resemblance to the lower animals Pokorny ' s vivid description of dead weeds. : was illumined. You might state that it was only the won- Professor Halsey was exceedingly derful character of the man that enabled patient with his students; he would always: ' : us to bear out this course. His humorous permit them to talk themselves deep into anecdotes .punctuated the hour with laugh- : a hole before taking away the shovel, iet ter. Another cause for hilarity was the it be said that Halsey always scn ogged student pronunciation of botanical sources, evenly; certainly his droll humor made for Linne notwithstanding, Schwalb ' s Snaker- . enjoyable lectures. His standihg-rqom-only root completely broke down the last conferences iiv the halls were an indication vestige of classroom decorum. of the roan ' s; popularity. Above all, let us In addition to the crude drugs, a study humbly record here that his modern teach- of the significant parts of plant life was rug methods- Were, ol the: highest quality. made. This enabled us to identify the van ■ As juniors we again came under the ous powdered drugs microscopically. Mr. tutelage of The Good Doctor. This time Wong rendered yeoman service in this field, it was for physiology. The first few weeks for I am certain that many of us would still seemed like zoology all over again. We be looking for stone cells as bricks in the labored over the drawings and howled at palisade. the grades as usual. By now, the sight The college curriculum dictated that of THE MAN with the umbrella in his hand the subject of bacteriology was to be a was not new to us, so we were not irritated treat worthy of senior attention exclusively, as much anymore. Here was a course to look forward to. It With the preliminaries disposed of, was under the supervision of Professor Prof. Halsey brought forth the kymograph. Fancheon Hart, who, we understood, had Here was an instrument that could repro- been teaching at Columbia for a number duce graphically even the slightest of mus- of years. Her capabilities were not to be cular reactions. We were divided into teams dismissed lightly. Miss Hart ' s phenomenal of four, each group consisting of a drum- knack of lecturing coherently, sans notes, smoker, frog-pither, electrician, and a pro- and those supplementary assignments were curer. The latter was the captain, of course, really stimulating. The periodic examina- since he actually went out and procured tions and random laboratory conferences the results that were recorded. The number were testimony to her proven methods of of frogs expended on our behalf increased instruction as the weeks passed on. With four years of biology impregnated Resounding above the noise of crump- upon our brains, we were now prepared to ling bags in Pharmacognosy, was Professor practice pharmacy intelligently. — A. R. G.

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Culminating the course was an indi- vidual problem in synthesis for each student. Information had to be dug out of the litera- ture, pieced together, and executed in the lab. It was then that we decided to bring our beds to school. Two chemists had to do work on protein hydrolysis. One was to start with hair and the other with meat. (Wonder what they did with her bones?) These projects provided experience in large scale syntheses which were designed to familiarize the student ■with industrial pro- cedures, inculcate in him the necessary confidence, and illustrate the practical application of their theoretical knowledge. The breakage fee was proportional to the magnitude of their work. Organic Chemistry, when it was presented, did much to sober our scientific outlook. For three years, the students oi phar- macy at the College had wondered when the seemingly independent courses of chem- istry would be entwined, and thereby justify the energy and time expended on them. They were repeatedly awa re that semester after semester one course at the College of Pharmacy took precedence over all others, namely, chemistry. In the senior year, however, they were rewarded. Phar- maceutical Chemistry was offered to them — a course encompassing three years of chemical background and a working knowl- edge of pharmacy. Professor Abraham Taub, a noted authority on the subject, taught the course. Mr. Call me Herb Lieberman ran the show. Both were genial and thoroughly competent. What ' s more, they conducted the session on a graduate level that pre- served the dignity of the student. You were an independent chemist, for a change. It must be said that the subject was a very interesting one. It provided an in- sight to industrial control techniques and standardization procedures, which al- though not of practical usage to a retail pharmacist, nevertheless served to supple- ment his knowledge. However, the course ' s curriculum, which required the completion of 28 unknowns, necessitated the mainten- ance of a crippling pace. The study sheets — eleven of them — were a burden for the students, a situation uncomprehendable by the Professor. Lastly, the final examination, fortunately marked on a curve, though a good quiz from the standpoint of its all- inclusive nature, was, from the standpoint of practicality, of dubious value. That being the end of our affair with chemistry, we breathed a sigh of relief. —A. R. and A. R.S.