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

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chair quietly thumbing through Smith and Gault; then casting his eyes over the uneasy assemblage he would select (with fond anticipa-tion of the havoc to come) some poor unfortunate soul for expurgation. Then up arid away to the pathology museum where our host. Dr. Campbell, held forth in his pickle works. Many a pre-exam night was spent there trying to differentiate fatty metamorphosis from cloudy swelling in a fifty-year-old liver lying in a bottle in no apparent distress. But what was the use when the next day fresh surgical specimens awaited our pleasure, with a breast masquerading all the while as umbilicus. A new addition to the department, Dr. (Doubting) Thomas widened our diagnostic acumen and with sly humor and good sense made us aware that medicine is not yet an exact science. The other valuable addition to the pathology department was amiable Jim Arey whose identity we were never certain of until two years later at St. Chris when he finally emerged from his dense cloud of pipe smoke. It was with anticipation that we looked forward to our introduction to clinical medicine. The choice of an introducing party could not have been better, for in Dr. Durant was the ultimate representative of competent medicine. The organization of his material quickly was seen to be the result of an orderly mind. The pleasure of seeing this fifty cylinder mind operate so smoothly and quietly at an easeless top speed will always be remembered with pleasure mingled with awe. This was followed by a voice piped directly from the old Southland introducing us to the subject of Dye-a-beetis Mel-eye-tus. This course was extended even to include the calculation of the caloric adjustments in the diabetic diet made necessary by the imbibition of white lightening. The advent of surgery was marked by much promise and little fulfillment. perhaps because the material was not remarkable for its glamour. The disillusionment of our previous concept of the drama of surgery was materially aided by the warm humid spring breezes, the opening of baseball season, and the boredom evident in the voice

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of the great North American authority on South American diseases, a brief postprandial hiatus is a necessity in the lands of the insidious worms. Here was a course to be lived! As a fitting culmination of the two pre'clinical years the department of Pathology .awaited us, champing at the bit to be off on the mad whirl that is the first several weeks intro' duction. The clinical syndrome known as the Aegerter Ache was quickly acquired on the basis of the hourly dash from 426 to the micro lab and the diligent search for hydropic degeneration in the tubules of unrecognizabel kidneys. We regret that we took such copious notes in those first few days because we would have preferred to listen spellbound to the facile but dynamic style of the chief as he rapidly made us aware that the pathologist has the last word. From the con-founding welter of poisons and vital stains (vital only for passing exams) we were taken for a mad whirl about the cardiovascular tree by the high speed Dr. Pete. Then as a welcome relief Dr. Peale appeared. From the roller coaster pace we were taken gently by the hand and led on a leisurely stroll through the well watered garden of renal pathology. His friendly tips about what was going on in the mind of “the Chief and the other members of the staff were of great moral and practical value before the exams. With the amiable grin and the breast handkerchief dangling casually from his pocket, the impeccable Dr. Peale is the idealized representa-tive of a more kindly court of last resort, the pathologist. Dr. Gault was an old and familiar friend now cast in a new role, that of grand inquisitor. He sat casually in h»s

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of he who lectured on boils, carbuncles, furuncles, and phagodemc ulcers. But immortal shall ever be, gleaming in pristine glory and radiance, that marvel of modern medicine, the Unna Boot. Another pleasant exposure to genius at work came with the beginning of the formal lectures concerning the more fascinating half of the race. Those first lectures in obstetrics were so compre-hcnsibly unfolded for our edification that each hour passed too rapidly. In addition to lessening our state of ignorance about women’s reproduc' live functions in particular, our doubts about the less scientific mechanisms of these puzzling crea-lures were assuaged somewhat by the end of this course. And then awaiting us was the treat of those deceivingly simple little exercises which gave us a choice of one or two or three out of four perfectly plausible answers to apparently simple questions.