Temple University School of Medicine - Skull Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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William N. Parkinson, B.S.. M.D.. M.Sc.. (Mi d.). F.A.C.S.. LL.D. Dean, Temple University School of Medicine Congratulations! The road along which you have traveled has been long and arduous, and sometimes rough. However, it will enable you to become a member of a profession whose only reason for being is the preservation rather than the destruction of mankind. And now for the advice all classes expect to flow from the pen of their Dean. Always refrain from behavior which would reflect discreditably on the profession of medicine: develop those aspects of your personality which will make you a suitable person to appreciate and deserve the role you will play in community life as a physician. It is not enough for you to have developed a sensitive eye, ear and hand so that you may be skillful in the practice of inspection, percussion, auscultation and palpation. A successful physician must develop a sensitive personality as well, one that is skilled in the art of perception. Your patients will come from many different classes of people: people with different degrees of education and different cultural levels. You must be able to discern what sort of patients you are dealing with and be able to reflect their type of sensitivity with your own personality. A physician occupies a unique position. He is admitted to the intimacies of the home and for him the veil of dignity which shrouds a person's character must sometimes be lifted. A physician’s attitude must combine tact and understanding with a scientific lack of prejudice. Without these essentials a physician can never hope to gain sympathetic relation with many of his patients. In short, it is the responsibility of every physician, both new and old. to be a cultured, civilized person, in addition to being well-trained in medical sciences. My best wishes go with you for success in this biotic and atomic era of medicine which you are about to enter. Cordially yours. William N. Parkinson, Dean. 15 1

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DEDICATION Michael Scott B.S.. M.D.. M.Sc. (Neurosurgery), F.A.C.S., F.I.C.S. We, the CLASS of 1950, are graduating, not at the end of an epoch, but rather into an era which is witnessing and participating in the greatest strides the science and art of medicine has ever known. The past fifty years have been illustrative of the problems accomplished and knowledge gained in all branches of medicine. Neurosurgery, as a specialty, encapsulates and typifies the gain in knowledge over that short span of years. Although its conception took place before 1900, neurosurgery's labor pains and birth did not begin until 1902 when Cushing’s first case of cerebral tumor was verified by autopsy. At this time, the neurosurgical operative mortality was a fantastic and chilling ninety per cent. [6]