Duke University School of Medicine - Aesculapian Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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S URGERT Surgery is not a single science, but the application of many to the management of disease, injury or deformity whose course can be altered to the patient's advantage by an operation or some other mechanical procedure. Manual dexterity and meticulous attention to the details of operative technique, though important, are subordi- nate to a precise understanding of the pathology of the living with all of its anatomic, physiologic, chemical, biologic and humanistic implications. A surgeon must be able to recognize disease processes in all stages of their development and in all of their atypical manifestations. He must know which of these might be benefitted by an operation and when the proper time for surgery may have arrived. He must know how best to prepare his patient to undergo the ordeal of sur- gery and which technical procedure is best adapted to the needs of the patient. He must conduct the operation with gentleness and dispatch with strict attention to the principles of wound healing and the physiology of the structures he repairs. And after the operation, he must understand how to care for the deranged biologic proc- esses to insure safe convalescence. In the case of emergencies, he must be able to accept responsibility, make decisions and carry out an active course of treatment, often unassisted, alone and in the small hours of the night when undue meditation, inde- cision, or procrastination might lead to loss of life. He, then, has the advantage of verifying his diagnosis imme- diately on the operating table. Rarely in surgery does one have to wait long, one way or another, to learn whether his judgment was correct or fallacious. And any surgeon with a conscience who is not humble under these circumstances is a poor surgeon indeed. Specialization has narrowed the held of activity of Du. CiARDNER many surgeons who now limit themselves to a specific area or group of organs. Yet no one needs broader training, closer orientation to the entire Held of medicine, or understanding of the workings of the body as a whole more than the specialistg for the fundamental laws of all the biologic sciences operate in his field with the same inflexible regularity as in any other, and disease processes, injuries or an assassins bullets know no specialty barrier in the area they cover. The present day surgeon can no longer be looked .. LY 9 an W- 4 X Du. Gm' L. Onom DR. WILLIAINI ANLYAN DR. LEONARD GoLDNER lulenty-eight

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QBSTETRICS GT ECOLOG The literature of Medical liducation is just so volumi- nous, and just so confused, as is the literature of any field of intellectual pursuit. All branches of medicine are intellectual pursuits. Obstetrics, Gynecology and Gynecologic Endocrinology do have many intellectual facets. It is problematical that any one is ever taught anyk thing. The individual learns to learn. Our feeling is that any stimulus given to the student Cscholarj in medicine to insure his interest in continua- tion education is of the utmost importance. The stimu- lus should express itself as exposure to the processes of thinking and reasoning. A teaching community should have a high content of imagination and intellect. It is obvious, therefore, that imagination and intellect should be expected to be manifest in both the teaching scholars in the student scholars. The mental efforts of scholars of any type, are best served if they are viewed closely under a system of intel- ligent criticism. A certain amount of knowledge can be acquired and part of it can be retained. A wise old educator of the eighteen hundreds once wrote, The shadow of lost knowledge at least protects you from many illusions. In any intellectual efforts, habits are formed. Among these habits are the habit of attention, the habit of exf pression, the habit of suhmitting to censure and refuta- tion, the habit of assent or dissent, the habits of accuracy. of discrimination of mental courage and of self knowl- edge. Of all these habits we would stress self-knowledge. Armed with self'knowledge the scholars will readily acquire the medical conscience so necessary for intelli' gent, humane and adequate care of patients. Wav , . . Dia. c,.XRTl'.R Bacon, a man of varied accomplishments and repu- tations, expressed very well the things which should be avoided in the acquisition of medical knowledge. I-le wrote, For first the zinforzmzfzion of the sense itself, some- times failing sometimes false: obxerzfiztzbfz careless. irregu- lar and led by chance, ffcltflill-Oil vain and fed on rumor: p1'i1c't1'c'c' slavishly bent upon its work, C'.1'tf7C'I'IiNI6'l1Z blind. stupid and prematurely broken off: lastly, mzzzmzl fllif- tory trivial and poor, all these have contributed to supply the understanding with very bad material for y'7!2IifU.fOf7!l'1' and the .fc'ic'z1cc's. Fit.-xxcis l3.xY.x1uJ k:AR'I'ER, MTD. Cvflcllifllltlll of the DL'pi1rtn1e11t DR. E. C. I-IAMBLEN DR. R. N. CTREADICK DR. Rox' T. I'uu4Ex fll'C'lI fy-.i'f'I'C'l1

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