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

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PRE LU DE Four years of our allotted lifetime have passed. Measured by the few tangible values that are the only remains of their passing . . . a receding hairline, a new vocabulary, a degree of portliness in our demeanor and appearance, a Doctor's degree, a new way of thinking. Measured by these remains, those four years might have been con- sidered slow and dreary, and well rid of and so become unmourned in their passing. But these things are but the ashes, not the fuel which made the four years' flame burn so brightly and so swiftly. The happenings -the high spots, the sorrows, the ioys - these are the intangibles which made the four years swift in their passing. These, in retrospect, are the things which have made the past four years an unforgettable part of our lives . . .

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9 -sv TO THE MEMBERS of the senior class I offer my sincere congratulations. You have completed one of the big steps in your medical education and are now passing from the more formal phase into the less formal but certainly equally important phases of your development. You will tind as you come into contact and subtle competition with graduates from other schools that you have received the finest of medical educations. The difficulties of the training you know, the excel- lence and versatility of the training you will come to appreciate only with the passage of time. The new training period upon which you now embark differs from your previous training in one important aspect and this is so important that failure to attend to this aspect can cancel all accomplish- ments attained so far. The standards of perform- ance to date have been to a great extent external, from now on they must be progressively from within. During Medical School and before if you failed to accomplish to a degree of perfection considered necessary by the faculty you were so informed promptly and often forcefully. You received grades indicating the degree of excellence and were penal- ized for poor performance. During your Internship, Residency and later prac- tice the degree of external evaluation will decrease to the vanishing point. It must be rapidly replaced by internal criticism and evaluation. Your demands upon yourself must become greater than the most intolerant of your teachers. Ten years from now you will be either a fine or a poor physician depending on what you have done during that ten years, not on what you did during medical school and before, You have the basic knowledge and the basic con- cepts, build on them! Hugh D. Bennett, M.D. Associate Dean

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fMQhMlS ckms of l964 t it ,It ' 1 .46 ,, 1, - 1- lf 1: fl g We I 'iv i 'fi l I' 1 I --'S , Miss Alice Britt In the life ofa young man the most essential thing for happiness is the gift ot friendship.-Sir Wm. Osler A FRESHMAN MEDICAL STUDENT is probably The most confused and bewildered thing in the world lexcept for a Sophomore taking a Pharmy examl. Even before he is accepteditomedical school, he grows taut and anxious at the thought of the M.C.A.T., the applications, the transcripts of grades, the choice of medical schools that might be naive enough to accept him . . . and finally The interview. This is a diabolical little session, where with anal sphincter tightly set, the applicant is scru- tinized, questioned and digested by members of The admissions com- mittee. This solemn little group, Trying to act cordial, but with NO written on their faces, asks the time honored questions: Why do you want to be a doctorf9 , Do you like girls? , What kind of a doctor do you want to be? , VVhy did you only get a B plus instead of an A in embryology? . . . and so on ad nauseam. . . . and then the special delivery letter arrived lwith 5 cents postage duel, congratulating us on our acceptance to medical school and would we please send 5100.00 immediately to hold our place. Our classmates shook our hand, Our families thought that we were heroes, Our parents had visions of us taking our place alongside l-lippocrates, Semmelweiss and Osler . . . . . . in the months preceeding the first day of classes, we masochistically thrived on rumors related to the monstrous Tasks that lay ahead: The total dissection of a human body, detailed histologic knowledge of the tissues comprising that body, and a mastery of its physiological and biochemical ramifications . . . land of course everyone knew that there were fewer seats in the Sophomore classroom, than in the Freshman classrooml . . . On September i5, i960 the ll4th academic year of the l-lahnemann Medical College began. We arrived early that day and attempted to stand coolly aloof. We wandered somewhat in awe through corridors ringing with the glad helloes of upperclassmen giving vociferous demon- in finding one another back. Ill hyperventilating tight stomachs and bounding pulses, eagerly en- stration of their ioy little monkeys with tered classroom A for the first time. Dr. Cameron addressed us and impressed us with his silver tongue . . The study of medicine is a life- long pursuit and we, the faculty, are but students at a little higher level of our education . . It was during this orientation that the bubble, which was our fantasmagorical idea of the noble profession, was gently but irrevocably deflated. He told us what was expected of us and what we in turn were to expect of i-iahnemann. Even then, we were not nearly prepared for what was to come . . . ANATOMY fell on us like a limp body and permeated our every waking moment, land some of our sleeping ones tool, as the formaldehyde did our clothes. The apprehension on first entering the anatomy lab and the odd feeling we had on seeing our cadaver for the first time soon faded as we became familiar with the routine of dissection, at first new and' exciting, but finally, iust plain hard work. Uncle Ray was a demanding taskmaster and his lieutenants hounded the little rascalsf' Wild Bill Callahan with his twin .45 Calibre forceps, Dr. l-laun with his precise