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

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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.

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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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Finally, with shiny new stethoscopes we were unleashed upon the unwitting ward patients, whose thoraces probably still bear traces of our ineffectual attempts to detect Skodiak resonance. Our insecurity as we approached real patients brought to many of us the realization of our true ignorance of the art of medicine. In some cases, however, the observation of the personalities of our classmates in the company of their patients came as a true revelation. Physical diagnosis con tinued with Dr. Mark's overture to his hour— oral questions which we inevitably answered incorrectly. But during this year the alarm reaction couldn't be easily aroused, for we were in a state of chronic adrenal exhaustion amid the welter of Bacteriology, Pharmacology, Parasitology, Mycology. Pathology, Immunology, and Medical Statistics examinations. The anticlimax to this hectic year, National Board exams, was the final low that left many of us a quivering, spastic, exhausted mass of sophomoric protoplasm. Excelsior! On to the third year. 26