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

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nAIAES

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There arc many things which we recall as we think hack on our beginnings in the learning of medicine. Some of them we should prefer to forget: others that we swore we would never forget’’ are all hut forgotten already; still other incidents which touched our lives in a big way or small helped to shape us and our personalities, our modes of thinking, and the way in which we approach a problem, he it medical or personal. The experiences of four years of endeavor cannot help but leave their marks; the juxtaposition of molecules within neurones must have shifted somewhat, the sulci must have deepened somewhere; a few new reflexes must have been added to the complex maze already present. The total of our experiences consists of material and physical contacts (ourselves reflected against inanimate objects); but more important and therefore more noteworthy are our contacts with people—all sorts and all kinds—in a kaleidoscope of situations. What have these experiences been? How have our diverse desires and frustrations been met? There arc many reasons why anatomy is remembered asfthc big course of the Freshman Year: it was new to most of us; the long hours with probe and scalpel; the uncertainty of our autonomic reflexes as we first approached the aluminum biers; also, the little whiffs of the dissection room which we transported hack to our hare cubicles each night would not let us forget it. Inseparable from our recollections of anatomy is Dr. John Franklin Huber. Wc were grateful for his understanding and sympathy, for his introductions to a new region which seemed to help us from getting lost in a complexity of minor anatomic considerations. It was all-important to him that we got the “general concept” first, adding the details “later.” For some of us this “later” was almost too late. We felt, however, that when one of the staff spent one hour discussing the pancreas, omitting any mention of the Islands of Langcrhans, this was being a bit too general. We appreciated the real efforts—largely unsuccessful—at correlation between histology, gross anatomy and radiology and felt vaguely that this was unique at Temple and was largely Dr. Huber’s inovation. Vi e never discovered which of the staff was responsible for completely, if only momentarily, destroying Dr. Huber's poise and organization, when one day his pocket alarm clock went off during one of his lectures. It was several minutes before he could locate it and then stop its insistent noise, and somewhat longer before the class could resume. Most of us were very eager, very anxious, and even thought wc might be learning something of anatomy when we were exposed to another bright light in the anatomy department: Dr. Jean Weston. Here was a man whose tongue was as agile as his hand, whose competency as a teacher could not be questioned—not even by the poor fellow he was quizzing one day: the student hadn't the vaguest idea of the answer, but Dr. Weston was quite insistent that he did; finally, somehow. some way, the proper vowels were mouthed and everyone was satisfied. 13