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

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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

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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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nomenclature, Dr. Amenta with his daily ioke session, and Dr. Chunn's barehanded dissections will be forever with us. Practical exams were stimulating and we began to feel that anomalies were more frequent than the normal And who could live down the ignominy of missing a tagged structure on our own cadaver. Months passed as we systematically dismembered the cadavers. We had all the advantages that science could offer, red nerves, blue arteries, uniniected veins. Gross lab was always with us, foods had the added seasoning of cadaver juice. Recognizing our classmates became in- creasingly easy - all we had to do was get within 3 feet of them. Most of us began to develop better night vision or got no notes at all in many lectures. . . , thus amidst the rattling bone boxes, endless mnemonics, gory cross- sections, midnight labs and lseeminglyl 5 sec. buzzers in practical exams, we laid the foundation upon which we could build our future in medicine. EMBRYOLOGY developed so rapidly that we were into the blostocoele and out the anal pore before we knew what happened . . . Somite as well forget itll HISTOLOGY introduced us to the wonders of the cellular world, with its karyosome, mitochondria, reticulor fibers and nissle's bodies. It was the safety valve of the first semester and helped us to preserve what little sanity was left. Our sketching was interrupted occasionally by the sound of a B box crashing to the floor, a smoke in the corridor, or a trip to OR. A or D to be greatly impressed by a surgical procedure we could hardly see. Charlie lipton's glasses were aways so steamed up that he always saw more through the microscope than the rest of us. Dr. Perlmutter, lthe histology professors' histology professor and friend to the friendlessl won acclaim as the teacher of the year. l-le had mas- tered the art of showing us that we could be right and wrong simul- taneously la not too infrequent occurrence in medicinel. Dr. Van Dyke's classic descriptions of tissues le.g., - liver: marshmallows in chicken wirel lent strength to the rumors that he was taking LSD. He was every- where patiently explaining what normal looked like. And surprisingly enough, when we got to Pathology, we knew the difference between liver and spleen... By the way . . . who drew the lines labeling the structures in the exam- ination on the gingiva and teeth? And who said that l-lilton's White Line was a chain of segregated hotels? NEUROANATOMY was brain wracking. lf Barnum 81 Bailey ever chose to add a medical side show to their circus, it would surely include Dr. Truex's lecture on the Sth Cranial Nerve. Spasticity gave way to sheer terror as lll little buggers sat stunned while the Mighty Midget would draw, explain and erase the lateral Corticospinal tract faster than it took a motor impuse to traverse it, Our Betz cells strained to the utmost, were hydropically degenerated and become overgrown by microglia in the face of the terrifying onslaught. Who will ever forget our field trip to l'Uncle l?ay's Zoo lThe Mills Buildingl, or Dr. Perlmutter's lecture Of course I'm confused? a freshman! Why else would I be E.. . Xa,