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

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. N- 1 ' '. f4L N ,fy 3 , , sd 'Z 13355 T' 'T 7 155543 of , '65 ' ' 'II 1 . -4' aio! ,-. -af -,nu 5-4 1 .L 1 .. Amedeo Bondi, Jr., Ph.D. Professor and Head of the Department of Bacteriology William L. Gaby, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Bacteriology Leland Brown, P.D. Instructor in Bacteriology Bennett Sallman, Ph.D. Instructor in Bacteriology Harry C. Scarpa, M.D. Assistant in Bacteriology The class looked forward with a mixture of anticipation and fear to Bacteriology, given for the first time by a new addition to the Hahne- mann faculty, Dr. Amedeo Bondi. The course was divided into two separate phases, one dealing with the medical aspects of Bacteriol- ogy, Immunology, and Mycology, the other with Parasitology. To instruct us completely in these subiects, Dr. Bondi presented a series of lucid lectures, including several by distinguished ul-1 'ix U . ' 4 'Y j' X guest lecturers CDrs. Kolmer, Spaulding, Harris and Clancyi. These were combined with a group of practical laboratory exercises. Here we learned-or were supposed to learn- about such varied subiects as Vi antigens, epi- demic parotitis Cmumps, to the now better in- formed members of the classj, psittacosis, NIH .4l ff?

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. WL ii ,! x L Most of our Pathology grade depended on how well we made out in the oral examinations. These were truly historic events. On the days when orals were given, crowds gathered around the pathology office to collect nuggets from the poor perspiring wretches who had already undergone the ordeal. Students were called upon in alphabetic or reverse alphabetic order and alternated among the various staff men each month. Dressing for the occasion was character- istic. The brave men wore sport clothes, the piteous wore old clothes, the resigned wore 'dirty lab coats, and the women wore sweaters. Anxiously you sat in the anteroom waiting for your name to be called. In a moment you were in an office alone with Dr. Kassab and his in- scrutable smile, with Dr. Froio and his Philadel- phia sinuses, or with Dr. Gregory-in which case you were really alone. Some orals took thirty .mf , seconds and some fifteen minutes, during which time you suddenly learned that you were a stutterer. The outcome was invariably the same. A faraway voice was heard saying, That's all. Send the next man in, and you were in the hall again feeling lost, helpless, alone, with no one to turn to but the throngs of excited people mill- ing around yelling insanely, What did he ask you! What did he ask you! Alas, there was no alternative but to go home and read more'pathology-or else. This, apparently was part of the department's strat- egy, for the students who were most frightened ultimately got the best grades. With a few exceptions, we all got through. On that fateful morning when we received our grades in the mail, it was with sheer pleasure that we went down to a hearty breakfast ioy- fully anticipating a grapefruit the size of a tumor, instead of vice versa. .1 F., ,nr

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4'1ll5g1,g,g-'..,, ' 'Us Y, i '. 1 ,Z kgbunv' swabs, schizogony among the malarial para- sites, and the, fortunately, non-inhibitory effects of brucellosis on the procreative faculties. Ably assisting in the laboratories were the two Drs. Brown, Leland and Elizabeth, and the ever- helpful technicians, Miss Boyd, Clair and Rita. A series of maddening bi-weekly quizzes, in addition to unknowns and practical labor- atory exams, measured our progress in the course. Following each of these, cries of an- guish and heated debate with the staff ensued. Then came the grades, cleverly concealed by a code number known only to the individual stu- dent fwho invariably forgot itj, to his labora- tory partner Cwho invariably remembered itj, and to those members of the class with superior memories and remarkable talents for solving cryptograms and codes. ln order to gain more time for studying, members of the class devised new methods of mass production, specializa- tion, and division of labor in the laboratory. However, we always suspected that these meth- ods were subtly countered by those unsched- uled end-of-the-day conferences, belatedly called by Dr. Bondi via the omnipresent loud- speaker system. Nevertheless, at year's end, we had learned not only the subiect matter of Bacteriology but also the spirit of intelligent, friendly faculty-student relationship as exem- plified by Dr. Bondi and his staff. X