Drexel University College of Medicine - Medic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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mxlllt X .cap ' A ffl Physiology lectures are not easy to forget. Those were the days when we had to get up at an outlandish hour for an eight o'clock lecture. We sat in closely crowded uncomfortable chairs in the dingy, stuffy, overheated fourth- floor lecture room. Dr. Scott entered at 8:00. At 8:01, the public address system was turned on and Dr. Scott alternately fondled and tapped his small lapel microphone. In another minute the tapping could be heard distinctly through the loudspeakers as a beckoning last call to wake up to the drowsy students. By 8:03 the lecture was begun. By 8:10 the last of the class-with the possible exception of Gabriel Rubin - shuffled into the room. In a slow, omi- nous manner and in a somewhat low and un- varied tone of voice, Dr. Scott muttered his bits of scientific wisdom-including many exam nuggets which invariably went unrecognized. Happily, the course was a thorough one. The muscular system, nervous system, and spe- cial senses were studied in detail. Perhaps be- cause of Dr. Scott's special interest in the sub- iects, stress was also laid on the psychological aspects of physiology and on the physiology of respiration. In the laboratory every minute was uti- lized, and many extra hours were often re- quired to complete an experiment satisfactorily. We pithed frogs. We stimulated muscles and nerves. We smoked kymograph papers and then proceeded to transfer the soot to our part- ners' clean laboratory coats. We strove to be meticulous and, as a result, many a student who looked with affection upon his lab partner at the onset of an experiment, finished it con- vinced that his partner was actually his worst enemy- a dragon, an ogre who massages his buttocks on the most beautiful kymograph records with malice aforethought. Gradually we progressed from frog muscle and heart preparations to turtle hearts and, ultimately, to anesthetized cats and dogs. On the larger mammals we worked in teams of four, consisting of the surgeon, assistant sur- geon, anesthetist, and data-taker. Here the budding surgeon was in his glory! Cutting at last! The real glory, however, must go to the data-taker, for it was his responsibility and his steady, unerring finger that often kept the writ- ing point at the right place, at the right time on the smoked drum! f 5' es

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X x ,.-LA fd? 4-- 1- '- , ,,, np t 3... ' l F! John C. Scott, Ph.D. Professor and Head of the Division ol Physiology Emerson A. Reed, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Physiology Floyd J. Wiercinski, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Physiology George D. Geckeler, M.D. Lecturer in Physiology Brion A. Cookson, M.B., Ch.B. Instructor in Physiology Aaron Bechtel, B.S. Research Assistant William C. Foster, Ph.B., M.S. Research Associate Physiology has been the nemesis of many a student at Hahnemann. It has been said that the scholastic status of a freshman in his class invariably parallels his grade in Dr. Scott's course. The course itself consisted of three one- hour lectures per week, two three-hour labora- tory periods, and all the extra study time we could steal from our other subiects. In order to save time in taking notes, we were required to purchase a physiology bible, a 150-page set of lecture notes compiled by Dr. Scott. ln a very short time we discovered that this voluminous mass of condensed physiology represented only the bare essentials to be mastered in order to appease Dr. Scott, and that the real bible was McLeod's Physiology with perhaps a gob or two of Best and Taylor!

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When it was not feasible to perform ex- periments in small groups, demonstrations were held. Dr. Scott demonstrated current methods of gas analysis. Dr. Beck illustrated the spirom- eter. Dr. McClendon emphasized the impor- tance of iodine in physiology. And Dr. Barnes demonstrated his own techniques of super- electro-encephalography with fanatic empha- sis on acetylcholine, a substance which is ap- parently ffgood for what ails you. Dr. Scott used to say about examinations that when some of the boys did poorly it was the students' fault, but when most of the boys failed, the blame was on the examiner. Conse- quently, his monthly exams were closest to what we could call fair. His exams were difficult to nugget and even with the curving of the grades there were seven studying for re-exams over the summer. The monthly quizzes were tough, but nothing at all like the mid-year and final exams. The first part consisted of questions requiring short answers, to be completed in sixty minutes and to be argued over for sixty days. Part two consisted of two separate exams and lasted three hours with a ten-minute break in between. This ordeal, plus the use of benza- drine fEd. Note: Chicago name Amphetaminel, resulted in several mishaps, one student find- ing herself fast asleep with a blank paper at the end of three hours. By the end of the year, however, we real- ized that the browbeating process we had undergone had not been in vain. We had learned some physiology. l L,' f ft it iff E ,f-L , f 4 - L-, X il Q3 If-2' ,Qs , as Qi UZ Ti ' 1. , Ptlgofy , 'llfffyl FOR .- ! it fLvL 'W i 4, s..-f.---- 1 1 ' f