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

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tail back to me in two weeks or else. The Biochemistry lecturers, with the exception of Bob Baldridge and Joe Boutwell, were disappointing. For picayune adherence to nonessential detail coupled with uncanny ability to frustrate, irritate and bore, the Biochemistry Department at Temple has no peer in this author’s ken. Fortunately, ‘Bones’ shared equal time in the schedule with ‘Oppy.’ Physiology has never been known as a ‘snap’ course, but Dr. Oppenheimer and his staff, in addition to knowing a great deal about their respective fields, were also human beings who could converse, laugh, make jokes, and put their lecture points across in an interesting way. The laboratory was well run; the experiments interesting, by and large. Many a weary freshman in the second semester would cheerfully have forgotten Biochemistry altogether and concentrated on Physiology, but the exigencies of the situation were such that the reverse often obtained. Everyone feared 'Oppy,’ who had a reputation for towering rage and a low boiling point, but these qualities were practically never seen by our class, and the few times they were expressed it was not the student that irritated him. Actually, ‘Oppy’s friendliness and obvious competence won our enthusiastic respect by the end of the semester. It was obvious that ‘Bones’ and ‘Oppy’ begrudged one another the time each was allotted with the students; consequently each attempted to load us with enough material to preclude the possibility of study- ing anything else. This made life hectic, since there really weren’t enough hours in the day or night to do justice to either course. At times we felt as if we were standing at the bottom of a deep pit while two enormous intellectual manure spreaders dumped a never-ending stream, our job being to shovel the stuff out as it accumulated. But somehow winter became spring, and spring became June, and even North Philadelphia wasn’t so unattractive when the exams were over and it was summer. Most of us passed, more or less gloriously. Some faces, including those of a few class officers, were never to be seen again; others spent a busy summer preparing for re-examination in the Fall. But for most of us a year of hard work was over and behind us; and yet when we stopped to consider what we really knew about Medicine and its practice, it was obvious that the fun had just begun. Most were acutely aware of the fact that after four years of college and one of Medical School, wc really didn’t know much of anything that was useful to anyone. We could take solace from Thomas Huxley who said, ‘‘If a little knowledge is danger- 24

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r i or - I L o Jj s : I’ (Jj CM. d J yCy . A Ji L h-ird VcVWf ury yjQ'ftQ, J113(sn pus, one’s hackles rise: when the geographical and chemical gyrations of the Haldane family, father and son. have been enumerated for the twentieth time by a white rat. one tends to fall asleep: when the semi-weekly examination purportedly testing one's knowledge of Biochemistry is returned with credit removed for spelling and punctuation errors, one tends to get discouraged: and after one has carefully collected and contributed to an enormous malodorous urine pool, and then spent the rest of the day boiling the StufT in unending quest for elusive molecules. one begins to wonder just where he is headed, and what all this mess has to do with Medicine. ‘Bones’ was right. Biochemistry was harder than Anatomy but not because it had to be. The fact of the matter is that the approach l the two departments toward the same problems was vastly different. ‘Daddy Huber said. Here is the material: we are here to help you assimilate and understand it.. while ‘Bones' said, “Here is the material; parrot every de- 23

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ous, where is the man who has so much as to be out of clanger?” SOPHOMORE YEAR And t!u master word is WORK. William Osier The Sophomore year began early on Tuesday after Labor Day — in the middle of a heat wave. Many of us had come back a few days early, bidding fond farewell to Somers Point and other vacation spots, to assist in the cleaning and refurbishing of the decaying fraternities, which is traditionally the Sophomore’s lot. With the help of continuous infusions of cold beer, the job was soon done, and the houses ready to attract a new group of Freshmen. First semester Sophomore year is a time of Pathology and Microbiology. These two courses together at the same time provide a prodigious amount of material to be covered, more even than second semester Freshmen year. One wonders how the student QF ' AMtMd ACIPS r can accomplish so much in a short time; this very question was in the back of our minds the day classes started and for some time thereafter. The answer became obvious after ‘awhile — granted that the amount of material was excessive, the situation differed from the preceding semester in that both courses were interesting, well taught, and of obvious importance to the practice of medicine. This combination made the semester considerably easier than we had anticipated, and in retrospect, it was generally the best semester during the four years. Everyone worked hard, very hard, because they had to. and especially because they wanted to. This is not to imply that it was all pure pleasure, because it wasn't, but all agreed that the long hours and hard work were well worth the return. Pathology began with a Bang, by Ernest Aegerter giving a series of bold lectures on the general principles of his discipline. This austere and somewhat distant department head, known behind his back as either “the Chief’ or “the Acg,” is one of the truly remarkable personalities on the Temple staff. He is able to create an impression of such Olympian grandeur, of such complete self-possession at all times, of an intellect greater than the sum of that of his paltry students, and is so adept at dissolving egos with the quiet barbed comment, that all regarded him with a respect approaching reverence. The man is a brilli- 25