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

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PHAHMAEY DEPARTMENT As the well-trained pharmacist sells a bottle of aspirin over the counter, who can doubt that his mind will travel back over the years to his carefree freshman school days? Once again he is the eager student listening to Professor Wimmer orienting his pupils into the early history of Pharmacy. Although he has often wondered about it, Dr. Wimmer ' s words come ringing back to re-establish his faith, pharmacy IS a pro- fession. Of course this pharmacist imme- diately thinks of the many colorful per- sonalities that roam through the pages of his profession ' s history: Claudius Galenus of Pergamos, Avicenna, the child prodigy, Maimonides and his oriental counter-part, Pun Tsao. With a sigh, he recollects how this was his introduction to Pharmacy at C.U.C.P. But back to business; the bills must be added up, the charges totaled, etc. A smile crosses his face as he recalls Prof. Amster- dam ' s insistence that the calculations re- quired by a pharmacist during the course of a day ' s business cannot be adequately covered by a cash register and an adding machine; Oh no? he mutters. The recent graduate laughs as he thinks of the fiendish problems conjured by his former instructor of Pharmaceutical calculations. The little conversion slide rule on his prescription counter can tell him at a glance the weight of 19.213 minims of water. It was Prof. Carter who introduced him to those two literary classics, The USP and NF, which plagued him for four years. Although he seldom makes official preparations any- more, he still recalls those two famous 18

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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

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phrases, macerate with expression and percolate till exhausted. The so-called practical aspect of phar- macy was taught by Dr. Brown. Although the C.U.C.P. alumnus had never been called upon to make urethral suppositories, it was comlorting to know how to do so. Lucky thing, he learned Latin too! How else would he know what Tinctura or Syrupus meant? He recalls that third year of Pharmacy quite vividly. Before that the class had been content to mix ingredients and watch re- sults, but that year Prof. Carter had burst the bubble of fascination by asking why to everything. Not only did the class have to mix the ingredients, but they had to know the reason for the use of each one. The percolator became a familiar piece of equipment — and not for making coffee either! The lab procedures were broken on Friday mornings by the formal orations the students delivered on their chosen Pharma- ceutical topics. One person became so en- grossed in his speech that he continued raving for 20 minutes after the end of the period, before realizing that he was ad- dressing an empty room. Ah, those were the good old days! Mr. Blank ' s course, too, came back quite clearly. He used to say, Learn the law, and don ' t argue, but the love of a good argument was inherent in that class, and the instructor ' s patience was sorely tried on many occasions. The senior dispensing course was highly instructive. That phrase dentur in duplo took on a new significance and Dr. Brown had wondered how his class could make ten prescriptions, including pills and suppositories, in half the allotted time. Mr. Chavkin must have had his suspicions, but he never voiced them. These prescrip- tions were turned out with more dispatch than neatness or accuracy. By the end of that semester the fellows had a fine collec- tion of pills in their desks and ceased mak- ing them afresh. Yes, that senior year had really kept them busy. Professor Carter ' s Survey course had kept them on their toes. That file-card system system vras pretty good for learning the USP and NF, but it was those weekly quiz- zes that provided the stimulus for studying. On looking back over those Pharmacy courses, the pharmacist realizes that amid all that mass of philosophy and theory, there was still a wealth of pharmaceutical knowledge to be gained.