Jefferson Medical College - Clinic Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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'mf' ,,. '2r, CHEMISTRY, With the retirement of Dr. George Russell Bancroft in June, 1945, a chapter in the history of chemistry at Jefferson came to an end. The encyclopedic course in Physiological Chemistry. with liberal portions of etymology, hotany, mineralogy, animal hushandry, and meta- physics hecarne a memory.. ' We recall Dr. Bancroft as a man of inex- haustihle energy, great personal integrity, and deep sincerity. His lmowledge of matters animal and vegetable and mineral was vast, and his storehouse ot facts bottomless. As we loolc laaclc, with as much detachment as is possihle, upon the course in chemistry, we discover that we memorized an unhelievahle numloer of complex formulae, and thereupon quiclcly forgot most of them. Our concepts of chemistry are inextrica- bly entwined with the Venus Hy-trap, the Dalmatian coach-hound, whale millc, and the tinlcle of glassware. Faint memories of a ter- rihle morning spent chewing paraffin and ana- lyzing the saliva- thereby-generated appear he- fore us. Friday afternoons matting up haclc worlc in a lonely laboratory.. Our first introduc- tion to the business end of the Rehfuss tuhe. Three hoards full of minute discourse, lantern slides and mimeographed sheets to hoot. Two sheets of paper, yellow, folded down the middle, name and numher on the outside. Those in- ternal huretsl Sheaves of needles and fuzzy hurrs. lvlinlcowslci and Casimir Funlc, hormones and chalones. Logarithms. These and dozens of other pictures come to mind. But, all in all, we learned our chemistry, really learned it, albeit the hard way. Dr. Bancroft was succeeded hy Dr. Abraham Cantarow, who had heen associated with Jef- ferson Medical College and its Hospital for twenty years. At the time of his appointment to the chair of chemistry, he was associate pro- fessor of medicine, and hiochemist to the Jeffer- son Hospital. Under Dr. Cantarow a new de- partment of chemistry, different in many ways from the old, is talcing shape. Dr. Cantarow hrings to the department ot chemistry a broad haclcground of teaching and practice in clinical medicine, as well as wide experience in the laboratory hoth as teacher and investigator. He is uniquely fitted hy this haclcground to present the subject of chemistry to the student in its true relationship to medicineas a whole. The spirit ol investigation, so conspicuously alznsent in recent years, has been revived. The prospect of a department of chemistry unsurpassed hy any medical school in the country seems very bright indeed.

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KPHYSIOL6GY We, as sopimomore students recently released from time ravages of our freslmman year, slmall never forget tlmat first clay in time laboratory of physiology on time tourtlm lloor. We entered tlmis domain of lcnowledge on tlmis particular day wlmerein we were to learn tlme plienomena as- sociated witlm life and clmaracterized by tlme ability to assimilate food, to respire, to metabo- lize, to elimiimate, and to reproduce. Tbere We found our seats by some aritlmmetical equation. were banded a boolc of laboratory directions and told to proceed. Some of us had never pitlmed a frog before: most of us lmad never correctly smoked a drum before: all of us had never be- fore been permeated by a spirit for experimenta- tion on living animals. We sat tlmere dazed for a few minutes notnlcnowing wlmat to do or lmow to do it. We were puzzled by time mystic indifference of time men of time department. But soon a few brave souls ventured out to do time worlc assigned and started time ball rolling: and witlm eaclm roll of time ball, tlmere was a gain in' momentum so tlmat by time end of tlmat semester, we imad gained invaluable knowledge of tlmose little timings wlmiclm malce us go. We timen realized tlmat wlmat we tlmougimt was unconcem- edness on time part of our teaclmers was actually an attempt to inculcate witlmin us an exemplifi- cation of tlme experimental attitude. Our laboratory sessions, directed by Dr. Crider, were tlmree in number, two of wlmiclm were conducted by the students tlmemselves, and time otlmer by members of tlme staff. In tlme after- noon we had excellent lectures in plmysiology delivered by our unassuming yet versatile pro- fessor, Dr. J. Earl Tlmomas. On various occa- sions, Dr. Pasclmlcis, Dr. Friedman. and Dr. Hart would talce over and deliver lectures on subjects most dear to tlmeir lmearts. Tlmen, of course, ,tlmere were tlmose weelcly lectures given by timat juggler of time blood cells, Dr. Tuttle fsince retiredl, wlmose distinguislming clmar- acteristics of personality and ambidexterity will always remain with us. Rounding out time pro- gram, timere were tliose weelcly recitation lmours witlm various members of time staff. lTlmus did we obtain an important linlc in our clmain of medical education.