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

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,,,,..-l History Taken By: N D Z W Y K Date Ilahnennn ledlcal College and Hospital of Philadelphia Pfovistonai Diagnosis CLASS 0F1954 From Alpha to Omega, Amadeo to Zecca, we have run our appointed time in school. Whereas we feared at its start we would not stay, many of us are now disturbed that we must leave so soon knowing so little. Hippocrates said, Art is long, time is short, and judgement difficult. Thanks to the awesome fecundity of the modern printing press and the inspiring fertility of man's medical curiosity the art has become longer and the time shorter even as we sat in our little ivory towers just off 15th and Race. Here we have tried the tolerance of teachers, our gastric mucosa and cortical convolutions. The former, true to their oath have done their all to pull us from the abyss of ignorance. Sometimes they quaked and were sore afraid, other times they were indignant, for the future of the Profession which was about to be engulfed in the second Dark Age whose advancing shadows we were thought to be. May the diplomas of june give them respite and time for repair, may the days thereafter offer us new perseverance and new comprehension so that their fears be unjustified and their consciences unblemished. Sprely even on the somnolent days of Spring when the calm of Lecture Room C was broken only by the drone of a few flies and some scattered snoring Seniors, it was obvious that there was a greater gulf than distance between the podium and pews separating professor and pupil. The former, with full benefit of tradition and the tincture of Time had cured a quavering voice and a tendency to plunge into obscure wavering premises. Theirs was the strength of things seen and tried, not read. Most of our mentors have bridged the chiasm with tolerance and understanding. II: is hoped that those of you remember them and the ancient axiom that most teachers were first students and that the press of the podium is usually no more trying than the pressure of the student benches. To remove the memory of rancor is not to remove the fact that it did existg bitterness is not completely neutralized by blandishment and the sudden ascent to familiarity and fraternization. Our faculty has remained fast to their purpose and have for the most part become our friends. It is hoped that those of you who feel the didactic urge duplicate their good deedsg rememf bering the rivulets of adrenalin and perspiration which ran ankle deep in Klahr at regularly scheduled Inquisitions. Remember, too, the redfrimmed eyes whose former luster rubbed off on the pages of many books and the hours of many nights, middle ears mashed flat by a stacatto of statistics, procedures or panaceas. These compared favorably with the number of sulcii numbed by imponderable ques' tions. When you reach your platforms and gaze at the sea of pallid despondancy, feel free to remem- ber that the walk was a long one, done in darkness and over mountains of books, through miasma and mists from beakers and bodies that would nauseate a neanderthal. Reflect in pride but add the com' passionate note that you grew on the same medium -the hardwood bench-and that a teachers task will always be to teach. To those who have given lavishly of time and self, ours is the greatest debt. We cannot mention them by name as they are secure in memory, but we exemplify them in the persons of Dr. Thompson and Dr. Brown. They have guided us through an era that has seen a resurgence of the art of Medicine against a background of scientific aids. The same suppression of sympathy which makes one infernally clever with a kettle of chemicals or a frog's gastroc' nemius might deter him in his dealings with thc heart of a man. Implicit in our final year was the HISTORY AND Write on both sides PHYSICAL EXAMINATION

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l l Registrar JOSEPH CHAN DLER, Ph.D. To the Class of 1954: I welcome this opportunity to wish all of you success and happiness as you finish your course here and go on to internship, residency and the practice of Medicine. My associations with you have been most pleasant. Your sympathy in April, 1951 mean: more to me than I can express in words. It has been a pleasure to help some of you in your difhculties with draft boards and the armed services. As a member of the Admissions Committee which chose you, I have watched your progress with great interest and pleasure. In june, you will graduate as the largest class since the number of the entering class was reduced to 105 and you will have justified the higher standards of scholarship applied by the Committee in choosing your class. XVe all hope that you will meet with a like success in your medical careers. In part, my own career is similar to yours. Although I came here some 24 years licfore you, my service as Registrar began in September, 1950, when you entered. And, like you, I shall leave Hahneniann in 1954. Goodfbye to you, to the other three classes and to my associates and friends at Hahnemann. JosEPH CHANDLER Sincerely, january 29, 1954 20

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l emphasis on the clinical judgement and its inherent superiority over the statistical or mechanical approach to a suffering patient. While it was conf ceded that the best possible course requires cogni- :ance of both art and science, it became obvious that there are excellent scientists who make mediocre practitioners. We have been cautioned against too much reliance on what emerges from the cauldrons and computers. To this end our beloved Dean Brown and Dr. Thompson again warned against standing fascinated in the gloomy hierarchy of staff men, visiting staff, residents, internes and students at the end of the bed while discussing the chart. They have continually cajoled that all the marvelous molds, fungi and advertisements will never sup' plant the doctor from his traditional past: the bed' side of the patient. When such a rueful soul enters the hospital, he is first divested of his trousers, loose change, shirt and socks. For these he signs a receipt. There is no receipt for his personality, he becomes a number with indiopathic diarrhea. He is photographed, flushed, xfrayed, and interrogated, next, he is partially exanguinated by pretty girl vampires with needles. Next morning he awakes with plumbing protruding from every orihce, and is confronted by a myriad of wonder workers in white coats who murmur incantations over him, having to do with Nhypermotility, achlorhydria and the joys of sig' moidoscopy or sigmoid Freud. Unfed for days, he whiles away his hours by giving the same history to new clerks. Most everyone treats the idiopathic part of the diarrhea but few treat the part that is Henry jones. He may rarely or never see an old fashioned doctor who thinks to remember that this idiopathic number might have a wife, two children, small dog fall paid forj, and a medium sized house and car Qboth mortgagedj. Perhaps clinical conf cretions will clear the diarrhea, but perhaps paying the mortgage will clear the enigma of Henry Jones B46406. This is not to say that patient's will not suffer many indignities at the hands of many LMD's who search righteously for ulcer's niche, the spawning parasite, the inverted T wave and the free floating blood sugar curve. It is the insurmountable indig- nity to be told, despite this persistent recurrent pain that gnaws at a night's sleep, that there is nothing wrong with you. It should, be obvious that things can be wrong in uninteresting clients whose miseries leave no trace on xfray film, test tube or eardiogram. Grant we be given receptive ears and understanding for dispensing p.r.n. in the tomorrows which loom ahead. It seems assured that many of us will be too busy making a living to be prematurely clever. There are children to be begot and raised, with the tradi- tional intervening marital ceremonies for some. We expect to hear much of the mental meteors who flashed across academic skies and lit the paths of their stumbling halting common kin. This last large clan promises much success unexpected in common hours, and those who marched erratically might well have been listening to a different drum' mer. Who is to say in which direction greatness lies? It is with mixed emotions that we part, likely to see some no more. Friendships form of mutual travail and imminent crises promise to last long. Many of you, I number among my best friends and these years among my best years. You have done me an undeserved honor just as your collective performance has given me an undiminished pride. And now with upraised cup, we commend you to your futures. Good Fortune and Godspeed. Jw WW, 7725