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

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Brand X we felt we were making headway in our assault on the treatment of a pill-conscious society. Physical Diagnosis provided our first group exposure to live patients. Dr. George Mark did much of the lecturing and in retrospect he did a creditable job under the circumstances. But if it be true that bed-side instruction is the backbone of a physical diagnosis course, then our course had a very weak spine. The Hematology course was revamped that year as Dr. H. James Day took over the Chair. He strengthened the course, generally, added clinical correlation conferences, and gave excellent exams. The laboratory work was well presented and well directed with a technician for every student group. That first venipuncture was a ghastly experience for many of us. Some of those technicians were even more ghastly. The surgical presentations of Drs. Lauby and Dc Laurcntis were generally good. The fluid balance lectures were also given at that time and most of us drowned. Dr. John Kline read us a lecture once — he read very well. We were all impressed by his confidence! Pediatrics, with its emphasis on growth and development, was a classic of conflicting data. Even now many of us are not sure how many blocks a seventeen-month old white Protestant boy from Connecticut should be able to build or when he should stick a pea in the ketchup bottle or perform some other such feat and God forbid hr should only say 6 words instead of 7 at the prescribed age! The exam answers were more controversial than the Chapman Report — finally, we decided to vote on the correct answer. The Department of Internal Medicine began its lecture series with a truly inspiring introduction by Dr. Durant. His obvious sincerity regarding the ideal physician's disdain for monetary compensation provoked some of the more impulsive and impressionable students to bum their money, rend their garments, and rush out seeking work as missionaries among the lepers. After Dr. Shuman had lectured for several weeks on diabetes mellitus, we exhausted souls were all convinced that it was a chronic disease. In any event, we learned that one coconut exchange equals two pizza exchanges and the pH of insulin, and that all you needed to manage a patient's diet was a slide rule and an extensive background in Calculus. Dr. Cohen told us . . not to kill the poor bastards in his sweet, charitable, homey way. Dr. Channick’s Endocrine lectures were excellent, albeit hurried, excursions into the realm of hormones. Dr. Baum’s lectures and his hit record album, “The Nuts and I, were enlightening and entertaining. Spencer Free taught us long division and yelled a lot. Neil Chilton, the world’s greatest living dentist, spent much of his time trying to prove this to us. And the whole atmosphere of the semester was relaxed until final exams and the Board exams were upon us. But merely observing Dr. Cilley dutifully checking our photos against our faces prior to and during the Boards was worth the price of admission. On June 22nd a tired group of students began their last full summer vacation. We had reached the half-way mark, but our casualties had been great. The class photo on the 6th floor of the medical school became riddled with empty spaces. We began to understand what the Dean meant when he said, If you ever get into any difficulty. I’d like to help you out. INTERLUDE: As Freshmen, most of us were still unattached and carefree; we knew very little of dishes, diapers, and such. With each succeeding June, however, an ever larger segment of the class became married, and offspring became increasingly more common. By senior year more than 75% of the class was married, and the additional financial burden provoked many of the class to seek night and weekend work as professional pink and blucrs in some of the outlying hospitals — against the wishes of the Dean. The professional fraternities were the social hub for most of us, particularly those who were not long-time residents of Philadelphia On many a Saturday night our tired eyes and minds were given refuge from the ravages of study. Although the parties never quite reached the proportions recently depicted in a Hollywood version of interns’ parties, they were rather lively at times. The occasional affairs at Alden Park Manor, usually occurring on post-exam evenings, were an excellent way to relax. Some of the participants became so relaxed that they got paralyzed — but everybody understood. There was intra-university basketball, football games during the Junior year and, later, rugby. The latter team is emerging as a continuing tradition at Temple — the Class of ’63 is largely responsible for its birth, early growth, and recent successes. THE THIRD YEAR Junior year provided our first continuing experience with patients, and armed with new black bag and shiny instruments (which we had yet to learn to use) we set out to cure the world. The class was divided into thirds with some students going to Episcopal, some to the P.G.H. — Veterans Hospital complex, and the remainder going to the F.instein Medical Center. Morning and early afternoons were spent at these respective places, and in mid-afternoon there was the daily return to Mecca for two hours of lectures. The situation varied from hospital to hospital and from service to sen-ice, but oftentimes it resolved into a case of ‘‘physician teach thyself! Most of the residents accorded us the same affection they would have if we were carriers of Bubonic Plague. The patients barely tolerated our endless questioning, and the nurses were even less civil. In any event, our bloodletting skills improved, and some of us did gain a degree of clinical acumen. The consensus of opinion was that the Episcopal Medical and Surgical Services were superior to the others. Obstetrics at Temple outstripped the new PGH program, but the latter began to improve as the year progressed. The combined Neurology-TB service at PGH has fine staff coverage in the persons of Drs. Gilpin, Vazuka and Cohen. These were excellent exercises in physical diagnosis and comprehensive medicine. The precious 2 hours of afternoon lectures were generally excellent. The combined medical and surgical coverage in the first half of the year often had a vaudeville-like atmosphere 27

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which they began to develop if they were conscientious enough in adhering to their diets. The didactic presentations of Drs. Hamilton, Boutwell, Baldridge, Gilley and Robinson were good as a rule, with one or two notable exceptions, such as the acid-base series which was absolutely incoherent. The bimonthly examination provided ample stimulation for study. Here, as in other departments, we soon learned to concentrate on the finer points as a matter of necessity. The ultimate question’s did this course give me my money’s worth?”; did this course help make me a better physician?,’’ must be answered on an individual basis. The Physiology course was traumatic in varying degrees for the entire class. Although not completely unique, our experience with this Department has to rank as a Temple Medical classic. Consider, if you will, that fateful Saturday prior to Easter vacation when an unannounced quiz (on some unannounced material) descended like a bolt from the blue upon the handful of students dutifully attendant. Consider also those high-tensioned laboratory periods wherein the furies of hell could be unleashed at any given moment. Consider further the incident of the oriental skirt” and its repercussions for one member of the class — a sad Day. Dr. Morton J. (Oppie) Oppenheimer and the Class of '63 reenacted the Battle of the Budge twice a week for most of the semester. If in one lab-period the student learned that frog muscle had inherent contractility and could also escape without a major injury, he considered himself a fortunate man The lab-war dwindled to a guerilla action with considerable hand-to-hand combat between individual students and M.J.O. as the semester drew to a close The lectures by Drs. Wiedeman, Ohlcr, Waldron, Lynch and Evans were generally interesting and informative. Dr. Ascanio’s lectures were received well by the Spanish-speaking members of the class . . . the rest of us didn’t know what the hell he was talking about! The suggested text book had many practical uses, none of which were concerned with physiology The laboratory manual and reports were classic examples of the honor system in reverse. Paradoxically, M.J.O gave a relatively simple but comprehensive final which enabled the majority of us to pass the course. Anyone who thought that this was an indication of our grasp of the subject was brought to his senses one year later when our proud group stormed to the bottom of the national averages in the boards, j And there were still three years to go! THE SECOND YEAR In September of ’60 our veteran group returned to resume classes. The first semester courses were Pathology and Microbiology. Nothing before or since has matched this combination. The Pathology course was, unquestionably, the best organized and best taught basic science We were presented with a vast amount of well-integrated material, with a minimum of repetition, and with a decidedly clinical approach. Dr. Ernest ( the Chief”) Aegerter is one of the most interesting and stylish lecturers in the curriculum. The remainder of the lecturers including Drs. Peale, Lautsch, Tasoni, Levy Watts, Arey, Smith et al. invariably presented their subjects well. Post-mortem exams, gross and microscopic sessions and the conference sessions reinforced the didactic presentation, helping to solidify the fundamentals in our minds. But the course was at all times grinding. We think that this is the feature that is least likely to be forgotten. Announcement that the midterm was cancelled was met with all the fervor of V-J day. (The chief whipped pre-exam tension to an all-time high when he made his famous “Ten Most Important Days of Your Life” speech just prior to the final.) The dreaded chief’s page” was an ever-constant threat even to the best-prepared students. Dr. Lautsch’s “beat the clock” exams were well calculated to precipitate any latent neuroses. The monthly “pass-the-slide session helped” one keep abreast of the seemingly unending slide-study assignments. The Walter to Clarence to Irving combination had to be one of the most consistently funny conferences of the 2nd year. The pre-exam cramming nights in the Gross and Microscopy labs were among the most memorable in the four years. And in February of ’61, when he heard the rhythmic click of Hilda’s spiked heels slowly fading down the 5th floor corridor for the last time, we knew that we had had the course. A demanding Microbiology course shared Pathology's spotlight with a moderate degree of success. The lecturers produced a variable level of consciousness ranging from the keen attention shown the Klein series to the soporific effect of the Shock (man) treatments. Here again we spent long hours in the lab (or else!), and although most of the work was basic and important, its repetitiveness tended to dull our interest. The frequent exams once again kept us from getting too dulled. The course ended with Mr. Lamberti’s wormy subject as Dr. Eiscnbcrg brought up the rear. That first semester ended none too soon for most of us. It had been a rough several months, and virtually everyone needed a breather at that period. Second semester of sophomore year was relatively low-pressured with one major science, Pharmacology, and several introductory courses including Physical Diagnosis, Hematology, Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Epidemiology, Biometrics,’ etc. Pharmacology was a well presented and well received course. Drs. Sevy, Bello, Papacostas, Rusy, Adler, et al. lectured concisely with emphasis on fact and the functional aspects of the science. Clinical correlation conferences with Dr. Bello were particularly good. Lab sessions were often similar to those in Physiology as regards the type of experiments. But the “armed-neutrality atmosphere of the freshman lab was of course, no longer present for the Department of Pharmacology seemed genuinely interested in our learning the fundamentals. Mr. Carl Mayo provided the comic relief in an otherwise sober subject. We dutifully practiced writing prescriptions replete with “mfts, “dis. tal. doses,’’ etc., and got gold stars for our efforts. In the lab sessions (nicknamed the Mayo Clinics) we concocted foulsmelling hand creams and evil-tasting cough syrups which most of us sent to our mothers-in-law, and other good friends — hoping they’d try them. The nomenclature of the course was endless: we learned about twenty chemical and pharmacologic names for each class of drugs. By the end of the semester, we all knew the U.S.P. and trade names for 26

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with each performer doing his specialty number and then bowing to the next speaker. Attendance, particularly on Saturdays, was variable. One can hardly forget that Saturday morning when Dr. Moore called the roll for 37 minutes and then soberly lectured for the remaining 8 minutes of the session. There were several outstanding lecturers, too numerous to mention. Dr. Mine hart's surgical anatomy course was quite practical, and oftentimes pretty funny as was the instruction by the Orthopedic Department where I Toward Steel consistently amazed us with his ability to provoke a yak at 8:02 on a rainy Saturday morning. Robert McGregor provided us with a centimeter by centimeter statistical analysis of diseases of the colo-rectum. The Pediatric Psychiatry series produced some of the greatest mass student migrations (out the back door of Erny Amphitheater) in recent history. The lecturer in Psychosomatic Medicine was doing nicely until he began to develop symptoms himself! Dr. Eiscnbcrg gave us 30 or 40 reasons for scratching our behinds and Dr. Meyer reported his original research on the nose-picking habits of motorists at traffic intersections, f r Tht third year was hectic, but less demanding academically. We did learn to use our instruments with some degree of facility, developed a history and physical technic, became a little more polished in patient management, and learned how to follow a woman through a normal labor and delivery. Less than two weeks after the last junior final exam we became SSs. THE FOURTH YEAR This is the most controversial year in the curriculum among the students, house staff and administrative department. Some of the departments, e.g. Obstetrics, Anesthesia, and Neurosurgery, have adapted beautifully to the situation, and the level of clinical and practical education here is superior to most other medical schools. In many other areas however, improvements have to be made if the clinical clerkship is to survive as a legitimate teaching aid. Bedecked in new white trousers, we soon became accustomed to being called “Doctor” and to be trusted with a small degree of responsibility. We were introduced to night duty, that magical time filled with troubled sleep and jangling telephones “. . . Dr. Clyde, this is Miss Fink on 6 PP. Mrs. Ninny has a temperature elevation of 99.2 and can't sleep. Would you rush over here as soon as possible . , etc. ad nauseam. Sundays on the busy private services were dreaded as “Pink and Blues” piled up with amazing rapidity. Follow-up oftentimes was impossible. Proponents of the current program insist that the increased patient contact produces a more skilled, responsible physician. This seems basically sound. Twelve months of such contact could provide an enviable educational experience if there were more education in proportion to experience. In the Department of Medicine an innovation in the program in the person of nine straight medical interns was added. This was supposed to decrease the workload on the senior and add to our time for outside reading, follow-ups, etc. The consensus among the seniors is that it did neither very well, and, in fact, may have subtracted from the teach- ing experience on the private service oi previous years. Medical Clinic was received with mixed response by most of us. It became absolutely imperative to know the most intimate details of the life of a 78 year old woman with a sore right shoulder. By the end of the first interview the student should have developed an insight into his patient's sex life, occupation, national origin, sex life, political affiliation, prejudices, sox life, dreams, race, religious preference, sex life, dietary and drinking habits, sex life, hobbies, and sex life. Some 78 year old women don't have much of a sex life, but they can be seductive as hell ... or so we were told. After several weeks of such inquiry by certain members of the staff, one started to wonder about their sex lives, and their obvious concern with everyone else’s. Some of the histories looked like chapters from “Tropic of Cancer or Lady Chatterly’s Lover. But one admittedly does gain a degree of finesse in handling psychophysiologic complaints and managing the whole patient. We could probably do without the home visiting, however, especially on a dark, rainy night at 16th and Diamond Streets. In-patient medicine, particularly on the wards, was educational. The conferences and quiz sessions were helpful: the bedside leaching, although not abundant, was always of good quality. The private side, on the other hand, was usually a case of pink-and-bluc and so long Charlie! Obstetrics and Gynecology was generally an excellent educational experience for a fourth year medical student. Few programs in other medical schools are as complete as this one. The nature of this specialty, particularly obstetrics, is such that it lends itself nicely to bed-side teaching. This fact, coupled with a sincere effort by an excellent staff to make this a teaching service, have achieved this happy result. This service is the strongest argument for the advocates of the fourth year clerkship. This service has demonstrated that the system does work if it is planned and supervised by individuals who arc ever mindful that this is a medical school as well as a hospital. Working fourteen or more consecutive hours for ten consecutive days in the D.R. at night is tolerable because one is assured that the knowledge and experience gained will be at least commensurate with the energy expended. The A.D. duty of ward Gyne provided an excellent opportunity to participate actively in the differential diagnosis of the acute abdomen in female patients. It is not an accident that our senior class has consistently done so well in this specialty when compared with other medical schools in the National Boards. We think that this reflects, in part, the attitude of the students' responding to an adequate stimulus. We should like to thank the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology for having helped educate us, and for providing us with one of the highlights of our medical careers. By way of contrast, most of seniors were pre-eminently dissatisfied with their exposure to Pediatrics as it is currently being administered at St. Christopher’s Hospital. This is a paradoxical situation which does not lend itself to explanation easily. The staff is generally of the highest caliber; the pathology is varied and abundant; the Outpatient Dc- 28