Harvard School of Medicine - Aesculapiad Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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Zin Betruspent It was in the spring of the year 1991 when, in the colleges and universities throughout the land, track squads pounded breathlessly 11p and down the soggy cinders, crews took to the water, and things were going quite as usual. But some- thing unusual was stirring. There were many mysterious letters arriving at fra- ternity, club, and rooming houses, hearing the return address of the office of the dean of an eastern medical school. Letters were sent back and forth, many bearing that cryptic handwriting of the Assistant Dean, and in the hearts of a hundred and twenty-five brilliant young scientists, most of them still in college, were vague stirrings of the excitement of a new adventure, eager expectancy, vague curiosity. By the last of June the letters stopped: the thing was settled. In September of that year, it was about the twenty-second, hy night trains and hy day, and hy battered small cars. the caravan of the one hundred and twenty-five eager-faced youngsters sifted into Boston. They were eager yet solemn, for shouldn't a man starting in his professional life of relieving suffering show a dignity com- mensurate with such a state? Next day was registration, the school had to be found, a long ride to Harvard Square which wasnit right, then a long jangling ride back to Boston and out to Longwood Avenue. There were the big white stone buildings with excited groups running in and out, the new men rather awed by it all, and looking about vainly for a familiar face. There was a man inside the main building who shook one's hand, gave out lists of rooms, and tried to be cheerful and business-like about the whole thing. There were things to be signed in the office, keys to be purchased from that potentate, Dean Kent,-what he was dean of, no one quite knew: and that night a reception at which a great surgeon spoke, welcom- ing the new men. Rooms were found and moved into, many were dingy and in noisy streets, but each was at least a haven for the new student. The excitement of arrival was over, and one found that these men from Texas who ranted so the first day were good chaps after allg this group from Dartmouth wasn't at all snobbish, nor were the many sons of Harvard. Lectures started. That first day! That first month! It was all a whirl of tangled names, a large red book mysteriously called Gray. There was a large man in a black mother-hubbard, belted at the waist, who pointed with long poles to mysterious pretty mighty old-fashioncdv charts. There were smooth lectures on cell structure, dryly humorous talks in the amphitheatre, much darkened, while bearded patriarchs of medicine were flashed on the screen. Then the first exams, - fevered nights of cramming: of learning parrot-like the relations of the radial arteryg and the list of grades, carried absurdly to the fourth decimal. Then but a 16

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The rnpnseh urmiturp In 1912 the Dormitory was first suggested by Dr. J. Collins lVarrcn, but no active campaign was begun until Dr. Joslin became President of the Ilarvard ltledical Alumni Association in June 1923, and it is due to his farsightedncss and energy that the campaign has progressed with such success to the present time. Since the Business School campaign was also in progress, no general appeal could at first be made, but the graduates of the Medical School, to the mnnber of H-53, have gone ahead with generosity and enthusiasm, and have not only raised over 5lS109,000. among themselves and out of their own pockets, but have secured the interest of generous friends among the laity who have given an -additional 2'lSQOQ,000., which makes a total subscribed to the present time of 5l43l2,000. In the meantime the President and Fellows of Harvard College have not only recognized t.hc im- portance of the Dormitory and given it their moral support but have agreed to invest approximately tl5800,000. in the building, which means that more than tliti00,000. and more than half the money, is in sight. Dr. Francis M. Rackemann has conducted the financial campaign with energy and efficiency and deserves much credit forthe success of the project thus far. Land for the Dormitory, at the corner of Longwood Avenue and liouis .Pasteur Avenue, opposite the lNIedical School and the 'Lying-In Hospital, has already been purchased. The completed building will form a hollow square around a courtyard large enough for two t.ennis courts. The structure will be low on the South side so as to admit full sunlight to the high North side. The picture shows the View from lhe south. The Dormitory when completed will house 4-00 students, but the part to be built now will accommodate only Q50 students. Nevertheless, this part will include the large dining and assembly hall, which will be 100 feet long, 412 feet wide, and two stories high. Connected with this hall, appropriate kitchens and serving rooms are provided for in the basement. Opposite the hall. on the other side of the main entrance, is a living-room with a fireplace and piano. The Dormitory proper has been divided into units or entries, separated by solid walls. Each entry has its own entrance and staircase, and on every floor are acconnnodations for eight or ten men, with a common bathroom. Single and double rooms are planned. The three squash courts on the roof are a gift from the Harvard Athletic 'Assoeiation. A gymnasium to cost 5l4lHZ5,000., has recently been donated by Harold Vanderbilt. A feature of the Dormitory will be lVIemorial Rooms, dedicat.ed to the memory of doctors who have served well their fellow men. In addition to the name-plate on the door, each room will have on the wall a. picture of the doctor and framed with it one or two paragraphs describing his life work. Memorials to nearly fifty doctors have already been subscribed, which indicates how strongly these Memorial Rooms appeal to la.y donors, who appreciate what an inspiration they will be to the students who live in them. Such a building cannot fail to draw future graduat.es together and make tl1e1n justly proud of the institution which trained them. 15

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---W ufe.vcu!czpz'cza --T- step, after long mornings with Wally Reid and Mary Pickford, those grizzy cadavers, and long afternoons of squinting through microscopes, and Christmas Holidays came at last. Train rides, friends bewildered at medical terms, dances, and then back to the old routine. Then learned about box-car hips,', bath-tub hernias, and lace-like omentumsf, Finals came, -- more harrowed faces, and then new courses. They found that nerve muscle preparationn wasn't a new en casserole, but a device for making jumpy lines on black smoked paper. Chem- istry, practical exams, with the cracking of glassware, soft cursing, and the quiet voice of that most human scientist. Spring,-a stolen afternoon for baseball games at Fenway Park, and then the first of June. The most glorious summer ever for those hundred odd, was that first summer recess of golf, tennis, fishing, selling bonds or Fuller brushes. Came another late September, brown faces quite at home now among the white buildings. Some few were missing, gone to parts unknowng some came back expounding the advantages of an early marriage. There were pathology, bacteri- ology with its platinum loops, the squeaking guinea pigs, the titration of the ambo- ceptor. There was that study of parasites, smug little animals with unbelievably long names and genealogy. But the crowning event of the year was that shiny new stethoscope, so carelessly carried with ear pieces protruding from pockets: and the contact with pat.ients. There never was and never will be again as wise a group as those hundred and several when the second year ran into June. That third year most will remember as a round of lectures on subjects too numerous to mention, with enough hospital work to make it all seem worth while. There were, it seemed, millions of ailments, called wisely clinical entities, and a new treatment for each of them. A task worthy of a Solomon who could remember his wives by name, to keep the treatment connected with the right disease. But the year rose to its height during those days on Obstetrics. Katy and MacLean Street will never be forgotten, nor that midnight call to East-a-Bost, U nor the important swagger feeling of making that first baby cry. It seems there was a beverage made from the grape that the grateful fathers forced on the doe with a salute ee bambinof' At last the years of grinding had borne fruit. Then as another Spring drew near, clouds appeared on the smiling skies, for things weren't as simple as they had seemed. Time and again lecturers had said this is the best class I've ever talked to! , but now the words sounded like hollow mockery. There was so much to learn. Why, they hadn't even scratched the surface. Then, should it be medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics, or some smaller specialty. And what about a hospital appointment? How did one go about looking for one? Surely there couldn't be enough to go around and someone would be left out. June came at last, with another round of exams, and the legion went forth more sober but wiser than that June two years before. Many went striking at hospitals, nearly all worked part of the summer. 17