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

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CHEMISTRY DEPARTMENT Most of us had Chemistry in High School and this course was going to be a snap. The first few lectures in General Chemistry were a fast review of the highlights of what we already knew and the majority of the class jusl leaned back and smiled. When the course got a little deeper, we did not have enough sense to stop resting. Mr. Anzelmi, who initiated our explorations into the mole- cule, was a quiet, easy-going sort of big brother to his students. With treatment like . this, the anions and cations drifted by pleasantly enough. The rude awakening came in the sopho- more year. Professor Liberman caused many stout hearts to wain in his first lecture. He ranted and raved through the first 30 minutes and spent the rest of the period telling us how stupid we were. This naturally caused a good deal of resentment on our part. Where did a mere Professor of Chemistry get the audacity to call a class of full fledged sophomores a bunch of incompetent nincom- poops? After taking the first exam in quali- tative analysis, we felt that a point had been proven. We were incompetent nincompoops. After several months of listening to this abuse and threats to send us back to grade school to learn mathematics, a short three or four years in the service came as a welcome relief to many. When the hardened veterans returned, they faced Professor Liberman again, now in Quantitative Analy- sis. Things had changed. According to the Professor we had experience, we were older, and the service had changed many — from incompetent nincompoops to blundering idiots. This made everybody very proud. The class felt that any change in the Prof. ' s original opinion must be an improvement. Instead of acting like a teacher to a bunch of school kids, he now behaved like a commanding officer reprimanding subordinates. Gallon bottles too! Professor Liberman insisted that it was impossible to titrate material spilled on the desk, heh, heh. A few extra c.c ' s of sample multiplied by the compensation factor turned many a ruined titration into a passing grade. Moreover, one analyst borrowed the step-ladder and putty knife from Horace to scrape a portion of his sulfate sample from the ceiling. (His results were perfect, of course.) We suffered through the calibration of weights, dirt in our crucibles, leaking burettes, and after a tough struggle, we finally emerged into, of all things, Organic. . Dr. August A. Di Somma presided over this course. Never before had we encountered a man who gave lecture notes at such a 16

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Doc Halsey was blessed with us again the following year. His little darlings had a smattering of information about worms, frogs and cats and now had to learn a little Physi- ology. We proceeded to learn as little as possible — about Physiology, that is. We en- joyed watching Doc writing on the board with both hands at the same time. Wonder why he never marked our practical final? With both hands working at the same time, it should have been easy, it would be still easier if he had two heads; come to think of it, the way he proctors exams maybe he has. The Doctor is the only faculty member in school who gives reading assignments in the text and then marks you wrong on examinations because he disagrees with the author. On second thought, he has company in that category, but we won ' t mention her name. Frank, sometimes known as Prof. Pokorny, among other things, was dismayed to have to face us again in Plant Histology. He must have regretted that in a moment of light-h eadedness he passed all of us. But we were big-hearted about the whole thing. We accepted the course with equanimity. Plant Histology was a compact, ready-to- take-home course on the cell structure of plants, so most of us took it home and left it there. The main regret was that we did not stay home to keep it company. In spite of everything, we still think that phloem is something you cough up and that ducts are web-footed animals. The outstanding event of the term occurred when a student tried to prove to F. J. P. that his microscope was broken by falling stone cells. Not many of the gang took First Aid, but to those that did, the informal easy-going lectures of Dr. Redden were a pleasant change. Our first contact with Professor Hart was in Pharmacognosy. This was not her chosen field, but if for no other reason than to display her versatility, she pinch hit for Professor Pokorny who had his hands full with teaching the lower classmen, commonly referred to as the children. In the micro work we ran into bigger and bet- ter stone cells; fortunately, none of them fell on any microscopes. The seeds and fruit in macro provided excellent ammunition for intra-mural warfare. Prof Hart brought out some amazing background material. We never realized that Valeriana smellifera was first discovered by Pocahontas, who subse- quently passed the dope along to Hia- watha ' s paternal grandmother, Running Water — and that ' s how diuretics were born. It wasn ' t until Bacteriology that we felt free to call our teacher Fanny, among other things. Here the abbreviation N.F. took on a new meaning — Mot according to Fanny. As the course wore on and the nerves wore down, we began to realize how important Bacteriology is to the Pharmacist. How else would we know whether Grams Iodine was a 4% Tincture or an 8% Solution? G.C., we were taught, did not refer to General Clean- liness. The College bulletin claimed that the lectures for this course were one hour long — who were we to argue? The reservoir of all our previous training in the Biological Department was the Dean ' s course in pharmacology. The showing of slides might have been a good idea if Dr. Ballard didn ' t turn out the lights. The ace lexicographers of the class were at a temp- orary loss — The Dean insisted that we use simple terminology. Dr. Ballard didn ' t see how we could ever finish the curriculum in time, but unfortunately he discovered that we had a couple of free hours on Thursday mornings, and the problem was solved. The department, for all of our levity, really did teach us something. We ' re still trying to figure out just what that is, but we MUST h ave learned SOMETHING. 15

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rapid pace. After the first two lectures, he informed us that he was a week behind and would answer questions only after class. In the laboratory, the Doctor was assisted by Miss Siragusa, Messr ' s. Lieberman and Bellino, and Mess Wise. After explaining the hazzards of working with inflammable solvents and conducting a brief tour of the fire extinguishers, Dr. Di Somma turned the class loose in the laboratory. We imme- diately headed for the monkey climb and displayed our athletic prowess. It wasn ' t until the next lecture that we learned these bars were for scientific experimentation and not for extra-curricular activities. Our actual work started with the production of melting point tubes. Due to threatened picketing by the glass blowers union, the student body deemed it advisable to purchase these tubes. Next we proceeded to make and purify crystalline compounds. Here was our chance to make an impression, for Dr. Di Somma just loved beautiful crystals. When we had to run ether and alcohol distillations, the faculty considered building escape hatches. It seems that the Chem Lab was originally located on the first floor but due to several major mishaps, it was gradually blown up to the sixth floor. We came close to having a seventh floor during our Reign of Terror. The highlight of the year came when each student was given a product to synthesize. The Doctor would probably be very upset if he realized that many of those beakers of our bubbling brown liquid were com- posed of coffee beans and water. Fortunately most of the class came through with bowed but unbroken spirits. When we finally reached our senior year, we had the privilege of taking pharmaceu- tical analysis. This course was a carry-over of the principles that we were supposed to have learned in quantitative analysis. It was a fairly interesting course and Professor Taub was an easy man to get along with as long as we looked busy. A few fastidious and exacting students became indignant when one of the boys continually spilled, burned, or otherwise ruined his determina- tions and yet got the best grades. This character would go around the class getting the average result, add the loose change in his pocket, multiply by the day of the month and subtract the result from his social security number; it was an infallible system. Two other analytical experts who were run- ning their determinations together handed in each other ' s results by mistake. When the marks were returned they had an aver- age of 4. Upon explaining their error to Mr. Lieberman, the lab assistant, who was a kindly soul, they were told to turn in the proper figures, and they would be corrected. The second results didn ' t do much for either students marks or morale — they both got zeros the second time. The final half year of chemistry consisted of a course on synthetic medicinals. A com- parative study of the structure, uses, ad- vantages and disadvantages of the various proprietary drug items handled in a drug store. This was probably the most practical chemistry course on the program in an im- practical sort of way. We feel sure that the man on the other side of the counter would not be particularly interested in whether a product had a methyl group on the Beta carbon or a hydroxyl group on the Gamma carbon, but we don ' t care, for now we are almost full-fledged pharmacists, and needn ' t worry about Chemistry until State Boards. 17