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

Page 33 text:

seven hundred parts per thous;nd. After our in rouuction to volumetric analysis, e took a very scholarly interest in guessin e the volume of a drop. This estim.tion was essential when we went past an end-point (the change from an orchid-pink to ;: salmon-pink was particularly aifficult) and titrated beck from an eye-uroppcr. The Ignoble Order o: Uncon: cious Slopimetrists was en exclusive organisation, to which only the vorst of students could belong. Mere sloppiness mctnt nought. For membership, it was necessary to drop a new set of weights not more than one hour after calibration, break at least five articles of glassware in one big crash (two tared weighing bottles and two crucibles at constant weight, rest- ing in e desiccator was proscribed), go at least 10 cc. past a phenol- phtalein end-point, pour half a liter of recently stand rdizec 0.107854 normal silver nitrate into a bottle containing an unknov.n volume of re- cently standardized hydrochloric scic (C.C9o 7£ N), and do at letst two original stunts. The dues were ten broken bet-Jeers p- r year. Needles3 to say, the members of the I.O.U.E. are today Disking a name for themselves in the chemical world. (There is no adequate existing name). As every constipated person eventually does, we took Physics. In the little laboratory hidden away on the second floor there were innum- erable joyous moments afforded us. Under the gentle supervision of Pro- fessor Abe Taub, we gloried in the wonders of the amazing oscilloscope, the colorful polATiscope, the Geigjr counter (the one with toothbrushes and a clerk behind it), and the spectroscope. Mr. Anzelmi was a highly valuable assistant, especially for the periodic electrocutions. Gee, it was something marvelous how he was able to mark the exams by looking at us . We built up a capacious reservoir of knowledge, learning that Sound waves do not necessarily originate in the vicinity of Long Island, and that light Saves are ju6t as attractive as heavier ones. .7e had hoped that our sufferings would have been deemed complete but instead the faculty decided to give us some additional try-outs and so we struggled onward to our Junior Year. V7e learned all about ringing cash registers and the difficulties in trying to swindle insurance companies from Professor Freddy Lascoff . During the initial semester of pharmaceutical jurisprudence, before the orange moustache of Freddy ' s was flourishing, it was still possible to pass any examination by repeatedly emphasizing the importance of taking inventory. Next semester, after the Fuller brush had disappeared, and the upper lip was naked, a student had to emit a sufficient quantity of hot air to keep the upper lip comfortably .varm, or fail miserably. In Manufacturing II we became accustomed to taking six weeks per preparation, and learned of the economies of preparing ten times the a- mount called for. Our having to answer fifty How ' s, fihy ' s, and V,nich ' s every week forced us to learn either the pharmaceutical reasons in beck of every motion, or the usefulness of carbon paper. Dr. Brown, who suc- ceeded Professor Amsterdam as our foreman, had us each deliver a learn- ed dissertation on a pharmaceutical topic. T e each worried so much over stretching out the speech to twenty minutes, that after actually taking forty minutes we were less than htlf through. We never thought of cutting Dr. Itedden ' s Physiology course, and so we did it without thinking. The thyroidectomy, plastic surgery, and