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

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our thinking the patient fictitious. In OBSTETRICS and GYNECOLOGY was represented the epitome of the mind which knows its business. With admiration we watched and listened as the various lecturers, with but scant recourse to notes, propounded pelvic propaedeutics for a running three hours. A few examinations, some written, some pelvic, soon modified any preconceptions we might have entertained regarding the ease with which this information could be functionally absorbed. The announced theme of the PEDIATRICS lecture series was, “The Child is not a Little Man. Growth and development convinced us that disease in infants and children is different form disease in adults. Once convinced, a fraction of the class progressed into frank paranoia, stoutly maintaining that behaviour problem patients at St. Christopher's awaiting transfer to custodial institutions are earning room and board by contributing examination questions, and availing themselves of spending money by correcting papers. In SURGERY, Dr. Burnett and his staff, despite the discouragement attendant a right-

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“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

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after-lunch lecture assignment, somehow man-aged to drive home the following all-important facts: 1. Proper management of anything in medicine depends on the proper diagnosis. 2. If you can't think out the diagnosis, play safe and look at the diagnosis. 3. Don't delay. However, when the department corrected the examination questions, they must surely have felt that some points were driven home too hard, making a clean through and through wound, traumatizing no vital structures with even a trace of an engram, healing by first intention, and leaving no scar at either portal of entry or exit. The purveyors of fine shadows took us through ihe basic physics of RADIOLOGY three times, but with dogged persistence, and tenacity of purpose we successfully evaded any significant degree of comprehension. Saving our ability for clinical roentgenography, we met this mathematically minded department with abject disillusionment when, by decree, they ruled that the ratio of clinical roentgenography imparted to radiologic physics already absorbed, would be one to one. With PSYCHIATRY came the vigorous discussion sessions, providing the lecturers and members of the class with excellent demonstrations of psychodynamic mechanisms. The burning question of the year, however, was not psychiatric, but semantic. To wit: If a physician says he is engaged in the study of sic-e-a-trick (spelled ‘psychiatric ) problems, why does he not also say he is a sic-e-a-trist (spelled “psychiatrist”)? UROLOGY lectures were best characterized by the superior organization of subject material. The urologists in this school of medicine not only tell Republican jokes very well, but they also pattern their public speaking after the advice of a great Republican, Abraham Lincoln. That is, “Stand up, say what you have to say. then sit down and be quiet. It was impressive, informative and refreshing. The Clinical Services “Click . . On arriving at EPISCOPAL HOSPITAL we were given advice, the true wisdom of which has continued to be revealed to us as we have slowly gathered experience. It was, “From this day on, . . clid(