Northwestern University Dental School - Purple and Gold Yearbook (Evanston, IL)

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avmrfiifafawimvfmfi+i1a4afam1wfamifw+iMwmwfafa3 Q PANDEMONIUM SCHOLASTICUM 3 Ecasvswwc-vif+vswi+4wrvswiwi+vi+vi+awzfwssvzwwswvwiffvsffws QQQZIQQ .'.':' ' Q tzjigggf ' HE caption is a coinage. It represents the unpun- ished and unpunishable improprieties committed by students in a corporate, not in an individual capacity. The evil of which I shall speak is: QU The vicious ----- fiiifiiiifii product of an abortive attempt on the part of fond parents to enforce student-life on children, who, by preference, would choose the occupation of a cowboy, Qzj a mistake in the management of an institution, in not promptly and peremptorily expelling a rowdy the moment his disqualifying, rowdy elements become manifest. Ro-wdyism is not a crime-nor is inebriety a crime, each, how- ever, may become a nuisance, and as such should be abated, if not by the school, then by the state laws, under which the scho-ol exists. Rowdyism, like drunkenness, should disqualify for pro-fessional use- fulness. Rowdyism thrives and scholastic pandemo-nium holds high car- nival because man is a gregarious animal. In a class of one hundred students-except in tho-se institutions whose financial independence places them above commercialism--there a.re usually two leaders in rowdyism, whose uproario-us deportinent very soon forms a nucleus for improprieties on a larger scale, varying in quality from indecency to criminal, assault, endangering both limb and life. The rowdy instinct of the individual is soon spotted by the class. and its devotees, in spite o-f poor recitations and inferior mentality, are lionized openly by the class, and tacitly by the faculty, and prob- ably this is so because of man's gregariousness, which always is pros- titute to ,a leader, whose authority rests in popularity. The rowdy leader, physiologically, runs to laryngeal nerves, cortical speech cen- ters, and hypoglossa.l nuclei, rather than to frontal lobe qualities. Psychically and sociologically he is an exotic, 'flourishing in the hot- IQQ

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Hartford, Conn., United States of America, is due all the honor of having nrst discovered and successfully applied the uses of vapors or gases whereby surgical operations could be performed without pain, and also elected him an honorary member of their society. The Academy of Sciences in Paris conferred upon him the degree of M. D. In 1847 the General Assembly of Connecticut passed resolutions in favor of Dr. VVells as the discoverer of modern anesthesia: reso- lutions to the same effect were passed by the Court of Common Council of the city Hartford. All the physicians, surgeons and dentists of the city of Hartford united in a testimonial that it was the-ir belief that to Dr. Wfells belonged the honor of having discov- ered anesthesia. b -5 To Dr. Ive-lls not only belongs the honor of having discovered anesthesia, but to him also belongs the distinction of having had extracted from his o-wn mouth the hrst tooth ever extracted without pain by the inhalation of nitrous oxide gas. Dr. Wfells died in New York City. january 24, 1848. at the age of 33. In Bushnell Park, Hartford, there stands a monument erected by the state of Co-nnecticut and the city of I-Iartford, upon which is a portrait statue of Dr. Wfells and the following inscription: I-IORACE XVELLS XVho 'Discovered Anesthesia November, 1844. I have thus briefly told the story of the lirst tooth extracted without pain, as related to me by Dr. G. Q. Colton, who administered the gas to Dr. XVells upon the occasion of his discovering anesthesia, and -with whom I was formerly associated in practice in thc city of New York. l.. XY. Niavnfs. 197

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house of scholastic toleration, and belongs to one of the two follow- ing classes: CID The underfed and overworked, whose misguided fate gave him professional aspirations, Q21 the overfed and under- worked, whose asthetic fancy found in the professional idea a varie- gated field, in which to call into useless activity its previously unused talents, along the line of ulterior benefit. Hazing is the polite term by which scholastic improprieties of a certain class are designated. These barbarities of hazing cover a range of torture from the compelling of a fellow-student t-o devour two whole cab-bages and sixty-three prunes to actual, playful, pre- meditated, innocent homocide. Hazing, however, which is now be- ing officially investigated by Congress, is -only a mild edition of scholastic pandemonium, as this vice exists to-day in some institu- tio-ns of learning. The two have important differential points. In hazing, pure and simple, the officers of the institution are not aware of the existence of the malady until the deadly microbe has done its fearful Work, and the congressional undertaker has been called to disinfect and kill the remaining germs of the plague. In hazing, the under classmen are cruelly and brutally initiated by the upper class- men. On the other hand, in scholastic pandemonium the hazers are ill-bred students, the hazees-the professors and ofiicers of the insti- tution-those men who subscribe to a legal document, stating that the bearer is qualified to practice medicine or dentistry. The uproarious student very clearly has two deportmental ward- robes-one for school, the other for social, occasions. outside of school. In school he is a pernicious factor. a dangerous student, a disturbing element, an ignorant, arrogant disturber -of the peace. a wolf in sheepls clothing, a Judas, a devotee to the boisterous. inde- cent, immoral, treacherous, unappreciative and villainous. clad in the habiliments of all that is law-defying. Cn social occasions, however, this self-same studen-t is a gentleman, clad in the deportmental toga of a Tarquinius Superbus. In the initial paragraph the cause of scholastic pandemonium was laid in part at the door of the household from which the bad student now under fire comes. In substantiation of this premise, and in partial justification of the student and also of the school which tolerates his presence, I would ask, is not early training. both at home and in the public schools. in a measure responsible for that I 99