Duke University School of Medicine - Aesculapian Yearbook (Durham, NC)

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Greetings to the 1969 Graduates of the Duke University School of Medicine: I envy you and wish that I could start studying medicine all over again, even though I realize that there is so much more to be learned than when I started in 1913. However, I enjoyed my sketchy and probably inadequate medical course. From 1913 to 1914, as a Rhodes Scholar, I took all of the subjects of the first three years at the Oxford Medical School in one year. It was even more condensed than the new Duke curriculum. I completed Anatomy, Biochemistry, Physiology, Pharmacology, Pathology, Bacteriology, and Junior Medicine and Surgery. In 1914, the First World War began, so I joined a French Hospital near Paris, starting as an orderly, and finally became an Anesthetist. In 1915, a typhus epidemic started in Jergo-Slavia CSerbiaJ so several of us volunteered. Later in 1915, all British medical students were ordered to return to medical school. As a neutral, I was requested to travel to England via Italy, Austria, and Germany to gather information for the British. The trip was interesting. On my return to Oxford, I became Sir William Osler's intern, and at night tested typhoid-Paratyphoid vaccines for the British and American Armies. In 1916, I was admitted to the Senior Class at the Johns Hopkins Medical School, but six months later, our country entered the War so I received my M.D. in April - and returned to France with the American Army for two years. I have been studying medicine ever since. Wilbur C. Davison James B. Duke Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics

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i If- 'Nx 'HHH Obstetrics and Gynecology Postgraduate Fellowship in a Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Cincluding Gynecic Endocrinologyj can be stimulating and rewarding. The Specialty is not a mechanical specialty as some observers suggest. ln it will be found intellectual and scientific stimulation and knowledge.'Any department, which is fulfilling its obligation to the Fellows, must give to them a sound and excellent clinical experience for the care of the daughters of Eve, and must have excellent coverage of the Specialties within the Specialty. This will insure that the Fellows do have opportunities to accept the responsibilities of excellent clinical care of the patients and also the incentive to examine and consider the problems of basic and applied science which the patients present. The Fellows must learn that in no field of Medicine can, or will, they encompass all knowledge to bring them to the genius status. Each Fellow must accept the fact that postgraduate education is a continuous process of learning how to continue, through his entire life, the learning process and the ability to think. With this process of continuing to learn there will be a development of the Medical Conscience. The conscience, once developed will force him to clarify what we do not know or comprehend. Perhaps Socrates was correct, when as thought, he noted, t'The unexamined life is not worth living. Bayard Carter Professor Emeritus Former Chairman Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology

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An ancient Babylonian legend has it that Chaos was a female dragon named Tiamat who was vanquished, but not slain by the god Nlarduk. The victorious lVlarduk proceeded to bring order to all things and set the stars, fashioned the earth and planned man's affairs. The resourceful Chaos!Tiamat, however, periodically returns to challenge the ordered serenity as evidenced by upheavals, earthquakes, hurricanes, epidemic, starvation, disorder, tumult and dissent. The dragon is subdued again and again and though many look upon her as the essence of evil, the famous American artist Ben Shahn eloquently defends Chaos!Tiamat as the bold provocateur who bestirs some men to noble deeds. We in medicine know full well of the frequent thrusts of the intransigent dragon. We retaliate with courage and ingenuity and discover antibiotics, decipher genetic codes, develop sophisticated means of birth control, transplant organs and constantly devise better means of preserving the state of health. Yet, the population explosion threatens us, transplants are rejected, epidemics recur, organisms become resistant and, most significantly, the failure to develop and apply effective preventive methods and adequate health care persists. How are these challenges to be met? I have little doubt that regardless of the nature of the curriculum most scientific mysteries will be solved. But what of the social obligations of the profession? Needed are changes in attitude and emphasis, and creative concepts of medical care. Teacher-Learner experiences must become even more intimate, exciting and frequent. Skills, facts and technology must be exquisitely seasoned with knowledge and wisdom and greater balance among the disciplines is necessary as we teach, administer to the sick and pursue research. Closer personal contacts are needed to foster mutual trust and understanding that will permit controversy, dissent and agreement to flourish in an atmosphere devoid of fatuous self-pride and spurious omniscience. We in medicine have built a successful profession, but not, as yet a successful culture. Much depends on our ability to thwart the disruptive thrusts of the ubiquitous dragon. Take heed, lest the resilient Chaos!Tiamat return to slay the god lVlarduk! George J. Baylin Nl.D. Professor, Division of Radiology