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

Page 19 text:

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.

Page 18 text:

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.

Page 20 text:

CULTURE Our first year at Columbia was devoted largely to the study of cultural subjects. Upon seeing the senior class an impartial observer would be difficultly convinced of this. Nevertheless, it was time not com- pletely wasted by any means; for it was a pointed effort toward broadening the scope of pharmaceutical education. Contemporary Civilization stands fore- most in our reflections of the freshman year. For the sight of Fritz Stern perched atop a shakey table, enthusiastically lecturing about Machiavelli, Aristotle and other philosophical greats was something to behold. All this while Samson slumbered peacefully in the rear of the room. Doctor de Groot, our respected English instructor, presented a course in grammar and an enjoyable study of American Liter- ature. The experience gained in preparing a research paper for this course proved to be most valuable in our senior year when we were required to present seminar reports. We were led through a course in ele- mentary calculus and analytical geometry by THE Mr. Hoffman. He will be especially remembered by Curley Bousel, for upon the return of a quiz, George noticed the subtle comment: See Mr. Glick ' s paper