Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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CHEMISTRY Physiological chemistry at lefterson is not something that lends itself readily to description. lndeed no! It must be experienced. Professor Bancroft was a precise, determined man who expected the utmost from his students. His lec- tures included not only the varied phases of biological chemistry, but encompassed the broader fields of knowledge in general. His esoteric allusions, cryptic even to lexicographers, to hake sounds, blue noses, Koumiss, and that exciting ascetic sect, the Skolpje, lacked nothing in variety. These were emphasized by the reiterated phrase, lt wouldn't be a bad idea if you got a hold on some ot these terms and made them a part cf you. During the laboratory periods, we first came to know Mr. Williams and Dr. Hansen. Of the two, Mr. Wil- liams, with his rasping, Take two sheets of paper, and his eagle-eyed watch on the back-row grape- vine, left his own inimitable impression on all ot us. The actual laboratory work itself left indelible memories in terms of concrete sense-impressions-burnt urine odor, the congestion at the special reagent tables, macerated calves' brains, glycogen-rich oyster extract left standing on the desk for a week, beer bottles full of urine, and the days of blood-taking and stomach- tube passing, highlighted by an hour-and-a-halt lecture from our professor, with the tube in situ. The examinations, held on the average of one every three weeks, constituted further rude jolts to our sensi- tive psyches. The good doctor let it be known that he would tolerate no carelessness or laxity on our part. Here we learned lessons in precision and exactness, which might have been worth the numerous below- fifty grades encountered with such regularity. His material rivalled the knowledge of O. Henry's notorious but invaluable Herkimer's Handbook of Indispensa- ble Information. tThe curious part ot it is that the National Board examiners wanted us to know the same strange intormationj In retrospect, after two years, most of us can recall Burn the tat in the tlanie of the carbohydrate, the amazing metabolism of the Dalmatian coach hound, and the vital importance of exactly one and not two drops of gum ghatti solution in the blood urea nitro- gen. Time has erased from memory minor idiosyn- crasies in the lecture room and laboratory, but our general recollections of the course include hurried copying from blackboards filled with prodigious amounts of calligraphy while concurrently jotting down lecture notesg late lunches on Wednesday and Fridayg brutal memorizing sessionsg and wrestling with three hours of lab work in an hour's time. All these vicissi- tudes have given the course its peculiar, individual- istic flavor. l OHN B. MCKEEVER.

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BACTERIULUGY It was our good tortune to be taught by the late Dr. Randle C. Rosenberger during the entire freshman year. He stands out in our memories ot this course. His was not a personality that fitted into any standard patterng he was the inclividualist, Rosie, beloved by many: friendly, human. He was a man of cold wit and warm soul. He taught well and strikinglyg his interest in the students and letterson was expressed in many ways-by the way he would remember and keep con- tact with old students: by the way he worked to improve the hospitalg by his interest in several charities. Espe- cially remembered is his custom of leading an annual Christmas Carol Sing, and it is our deep hope that this tradition may remain as his living and enjoyed memo- rial. We know that he shall take his place with the honored men ot letterson-with Da Costa, and Hare, and Ulrich. Despite excellent teaching, the more we learned about bugs, the more we went likewise. We did every- thing but see them. We heard about them trom Dr. Kreidlerp we read about them in our quiz and lecture notesg we looked at their pretty pictures in textbooks. But all that we ever saw on our slides was brilliantly multicolored glop. CNear the end ot the course, some of the debris came to look like bacteria, but it might have been due to improved imaginationsj We heard about colonies, and we did a lot ot careful smear- ing and inoculating, but we never seemed to raise much more than beautiful, mixed cultures ot Strep. viridans and Staph. aureus. And thus the unknown test was more like a guessing game, and the practi- cal test was more like a massacre. There is, ot course, some tar-off land, where the Ziehl-Nielsons and the Calmette-Bordet-Gengous live, where they actually see these strange creatures, the bacteria. But we never did. Dr. Kriedler, now head ot the department, was re- spected as a scientist, was liked by the students, and gave clear, well-organized lectures. Dr. Blundell was respected as a scientist, and was liked by the students. His lectures, however, are best described as chal- lenging. They started ott with imaginative titles wor- thy ot a circulating library- Such Stutt As Dreams Are Made Ot, or A Remarkable Adventure, or Sex Among the Streptococcif' They would begin with some dramatic situation-tcr instance, a letferson treshman lett alone on a lapanese-held South Pacitic island, without food, water, or compass, but, by strange coincidence, with thirty-two test tubes ot bacteria cul- ture, several blood-agar plates, and two cc. of bile tor solubility testing. Dr. Blundell, then chalking up a vast array ot unrelated tables, would challenge us with everything known about the subject in the last one hundred and titty years, all in a rapid staccato. Skill- tully, he would jump from one subject to another, and keep us in suspense by stating the more important facts in a husky, dramatic mumble. The lectures, to say the least, were memorable. lt was good to learn Bac, T. at letterson: to know Dr. Kriedler, and come to have attection for his rotund friendliness and good stories, and to have admiration for his Pennsylvania-Dutch slow, certain thoroughnessp to know Dr. Blundell, outside ot lecture, and come to appreciate his skill and good humor and wide knowledgey and to be in contact, unfortunately brietly, with Dr. Meranze, who was a real scientist and a good friend. And, especially, it was good to have had the great privilege of being among those who knew the beloved Dr. Rosenberger. HERBERT HARRY HAUCK. 25

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And now, gentlemen, we have cleared away the underbrush, and can head for the tall timber. With such imaginative language our genial professor of pathology, Dr. Virgil H. Moon, would end one aspect of a subject, and introduce another. Pathology was a course first encountered in the last half of the sophomore year and completed in the first half of the junior year. Its importance was emphasized in Dr. Moon's first lecture by his quotation from Sir William Osler, As is our pathology, so is our prac- tice. Throughout the remainder of our work we were impressed by the truth of this significant state- ment. lf it might be said with equal truth, As is our pathology course, so is our practice, we would be physicians unexcelled. Dr. Moon conducted his department in a thoroughly capable and efficient way. He placed emphasis on coordinating all aspects of disease, clearly showing the relationship between the gross and microscopic, be- tween the living and the dead. How well we remem- ber, in this regard, his saying, Well, now, gentle- men, if the first half of the section will leave quietly, we shall have the opportunity of showing you an PATHULUGY autopsy. This introduced, in a quietly dramatic fashion, the manifestations of the ills to which human flesh is heir. Dr. Moon tor, as he is better known, the Chief J was ably assisted by Dr. loseph Stasney, Dr. Donald McGraw, and Dr. Thomas Scaricaciottoli. On the days when the Chief wasn't present, we would be ex- posed to the vituperative outbursts of Dangerous Dan McGrew, known sometimes as the Little Chief. His emphasis on describing a slide accurately and fully became only too familiar, as did his chant about areas of vascular infiltration with numerous poly- morphonuclear cells, plasma cells, and some erythro- cytes, or, as paraphrased by the distinguished Sena- tor from North Carolina, cellular infiltration with fibrosis and gunk. Dr. Stasney did much to enhance the prestige of the department. The suggestion, Would you be so kind, Mister --, as to ditzcuss the next slide, was his amiable introduction to late morning quiz sections. Dr. Scaricaciotclli, quiz master and lab adviser, did much to unravel some of the knots in the complexity of pathology. His quiet aid helped many of us. Most vividly, however, we remember the Chief's numerous disquisitions on Shock and Related Capil- lary Phenomena. However much he claimed to go down to the Delaware and do 'you know what,' we realize the great contribution his studies have made, and are glad to have had his clear presentation of them. And, above all else we gained from the course, Dr. Moon made us aware of the importance of the skep- tical, scientific approach to our practice. lOl-IN B. MCKEEVER.