Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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theatre, and confused us no end because, while he jabbed with his pointer and frowned, he would at the same time have a twinkle in his eye. And in a fath- erly way he would explain a man's blessed privi- lege, and warn of Eleventh Street. As for the name lake, well, he used to swing off into personal anec- dotes about Ernie Dusek's cauliflower ear, and he would explain the proprioceptive nervous system by stories about the blind horse he had as a boy on the farm. We warmly admired Dr. Schaeffer, and shall remem- ber him with affectionate respect. We were lucky, also, to have Doctors Bennett and Michels. Dr. Bennett was a many-sided man. He could dissect brilliantly, discuss Goethe, beat any student at tennis, give statistics on Hottentot aprons, and could remember every student's name and troubles. He rivalled Hollywood in his guizzing. First, like Erich von Stroheim, he would be the Nazi officer, and bark out, ''Unnnntttterrrrrberrrrrrgerrrrr! Descrr- rrribe for me the larninaaaaa papyrrrrrrecia! Then, while the student quivered and gawked, the Doctor would become kindly ol' Marse Bennett from the South, and drawl, Sceered? Ah, now that's not so hard. The student, encouraged, would gradually come out with the right answers, but then make an error. Then the Doctor would be Mr. District Attor- ney. Yes? And what gives you that impression? But we were well aware that growl, soothe, or argue, Dr. Bennett was earnestly attempting to teach usp that, in all cases, he was just and patient, and in all cases believed in the students. Dr. Michels we came to respect for his painstaking, scientific thoroughness, and to like him for his good- natured banter with the students. We also came to be awed at his super-blunt dissection, in which with one savage lunge of the scalpel he would accomplish a week's work. And woe to the student who does not know . . . Dr. Michels saw to it well that we did know. There were other men of equal note. Dr. Ramsay, a man of scientific skill, wry humor, and brilliantly clear lecturing. He had the whimsical habit of slip- ping us slides of trachea surrounded by urinary blad- der, and looking deadpan at us while we sweated over them. He had also the habit of murderously tracing everything, medical and otherwise, down to basic relationships-honest science.. Dr. Bates, M.A., pounded the complexities of embryology into our sleepy brains, and earned our respect for his con- siderable knowledge. Unfortunately, he suffered from a split personality-one day, he was extremely patient and helpful with anything that puzzled any student, another day, he would pounce on us with a surprise quiz that Heiden-Hain himself would have flunked. Dr. Ciliberti loved red ties, and hated that Red, Roosevelt. He was a good quizmaster and al- ways on the side of the student. Dr. Cherner told us when it was fish day, and impressed on us the impor- tant lesson, Keep on the fingers, in surgery. Dr. Swartley gave us the practical side of anatomy, by showing us how frequently it fitted in with later medi-

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ANATUIVIY FRESHMAN YEAR The anatomy course was an unusual combination of heaven and hell: a cross between a Dr. Kildare pic- ture and a concentration camp. The hell part of it came first. They called it osteology. First, we trotted over to the library, and bought copies of Morris' Anatomy, and grew paler and paler as we looked over the hundreds of big pages of little print. For two weeks we sweated over protuberances and muscle attachments, and had glycosuria from the daily quizzes, and acute depression over the prospect of three more years like that. About the only fun was in having the boxes of bones. We went according to the best medical school tradition, and the night after the boxes were issued, there were one hundred and fifty-two calvaria used as ash-trays, seventy-four skulls fixed up with cigarettes in their mouths and, fit is esti- matedl fourteen fights between students using femurs as clubs. lt is difficult to say exactly when it was that we stopped feeling like inmates of a concentration camp. Possibly it was during the first anatomy dissection lab, when we drew first blood on our cadavers, and felt professional as we deftly GJ incised from thyroid to xiphoid, and afterward exposed what we hoped was the platysma muscle. Maybe it was during the oste- ology quizzes, when Dr. Michels, sending students on one side of the room into tetany with questions, would look over to those on the other side, give a big grin, like a little kid, and wink. Or maybe when we went out on our first dates in Philadelphia, and were able to string out a long line of impressive words. In any case, we came to like it well. But hell broke loose again with the first blue book. Despite Dr. Schaeffer's interesting instructions to go to the movies on the night before, we crammed our heads until 3 A. M., walked sleepily into the exam the next day, and then drained all our new knowledge onto the exam paper. As we left, and groggily went to Curley's or Chassey's, we wondered how we would live through any more exams like that. Little did we realize that they were going to come faster and faster, diabolically scheduled so that, during the last part of the year, they'd be thrown at us at the rate of two a day. As the year continued, we came to know the men who taught us. To say we were lucky is understating it. The staff at Daniel Baugh Institute were medical men, they were medical in the best sense of the worcly they were men in the best sense of the word. Outstanding among them was Dr. Schaeffer, who was called fwheri safely out of earshotl the Great White Father, and was Cwhen absolutely safely out of ear- shotl called Iake. All three names applied well. As Dr. Schaeffer, he was the expert scientist, giving de- tailed lectures on the comparative anatomy of the maxillary sinus: he was the editor of Morris' Anatomy 5 he was a stickler for accuracy. As the Great White Father, he guizzed us sternly, yet kindly, in the amphi-

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cal work. Dr. Moore explained Cunningham, and pushed many a man over the line with his question forecasts and his patient tutoring in the lab. A bril- liant and kindly group of men, who will be remem- bered long after we forget the ligament of Treitz and the musculus stapedius. The year rolled along. Exams kept swamping usp we trembled through many quiz sectionsg we worked and fiddled through many labs. We took the prac- ticals, and spotted the radial nerve as a tendon, and were completely stumped by Dr. Michels' specimens which were apparently dissected by a locomotive. We stumbled around through the last days of freshman year, slapped some answers down on the final exam paper, and foggily wandered out. At that inglorious moment, we would have laughed in anybody's face who'd have told us-but the fact was we knew our anatomy well, probably better than any group of fresh- man students. For we had completed the tinest anatomy course in America. SOPHOMORE YEAR As it seemed to some, Never have so many known so little about so much. We sweated over cross-sec- tions in the labsg we tried our best to remember the screwball synapses of the thalamusg we pored over a compend Cinherited from past generations of studentsl which was designed by some humorist to simplify the course. But no dice. The nervous system seemed very complex Dr. Benjamin Lipschutz ably explained the material in laboratory, and tried to impart to us some of his knowledge and enthusiasm. Dr. Durante and Dr. Varano went to many pains to help us under- stand. And nobody can say that Dr. Schaeffer didn't quiz us enough. But we went into the practicals trem- 1 , ..:. M . , lf 3 : , -A .. 1' was -f or Q .. 5 1' F A iff., , ,,, .1 sf . is i 'c wi gt bling, and into the finals in what felt like total igno- rance. And yet we passed the impossible exams. And later, during senior neurology, we found we could understand symptoms, and had a fairly good knowl- edge of the column of Goll, and the cerebellar tracts. We are grateful for this strange miracle. JUNIOR YEAR Our recollection of this year's lectures are some- what sleepy. We woozily flopped into the amphitheatre seats at ten minutes after nine in the morning, and stared blankly at a suave man who paced up and down in the pit. Sometimes we were roused tc conscious- ness by Sometimes I ask this on examinations. At the end of the period, we would take up our notes tbeing juniors, we had learned to take notes and sleep at the same timel. Toward the end of the year, when we finally read the notes, we discovered we had a useful summary of anatomy for surgical and medical practice. I For five weeks during the year, we dissected, as part of the laboratory course in applied anatomy. That is, we would gather around a body, the man nearest would jab it, identify a structure, and each man would yell to the man behind him, what was going on in front. Some of the men on the outside never did see the cadaver. But this work reactivated our knowledge of anatomy, and the experience with cross-sections gave us a better understanding of the body's structural relationships. lt is good that this refresher course is part of the lefferson curriculum, and we appreciate the efforts of Dr. Bonney and Dr. De Carlo in presenting the work to us. ff- 'Wk Y f- - . -Il , V 4 .f