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

Page 30 text:

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

Page 32 text:

“Gentlemen — the gonads have been snatched from us . . Prolegomenon The diverse complexity of our third year itiiv erary precludes a detailed coverage. So, too, however, tradition precludes its omission. It is then, without apologies, that the following eclec-tic commentary is proffcrred. Lectures and Demonstration Clinics On returning to Philadelphia to take the Na tional Board Examinations, we heard that, through the grace of the A.M.A. Zi W.N.P., “our” junior year would be different from those of our predecessors. We were to have half as many formal lectures and twice as much time in the clinics and wards. We soon learned that thts was approximately true, and meanwhile won' dered gratefully how the previous classes had not developed bilateral gluteus maximus hypertrophy. Many of our sessions in MEDICINE were fecund with interest and humor. As transient diversion form the fierce strain of the pernennial amanuensis, one had but to scan the room to con' template the bizarre expressions and postures attained by those most subject to postprandial supratentorial deficit or late afternoon hypogly' cemia. Lest the ability acquired in three years to cope with contingencies be doubted, the outstand' ing “show” of this nature occurred when Dr. Lansbury, during a session in suprapubic endocrinology, closed in on a student whom everyone was sure was asleep, only to recoil nonplussed as the student lurched into reality with the correct diagnosis. The demonstration clinics would occas-sionally present us with a special type of diagnostic problem, i.e., no one could determine why some patients were brought to the amphitheatre. With relief we came to learn this was to prevent 28