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

Page 17 text:

f “Boy! One hundred sheets ofanatbinv to know for the first day of class. What's the zy-go-hvpo-phys-i-al joints?” “Don’t ask me. I haven’t read the sheets vet. I'hat’s why I'm sitting way back here in the last row, last seat. Quiet, here’s Doctor Huber now.” “Good morning, doctors. . .” “Doctors? Wow! I hat’s terrific.” This morning we’ll review the material you read over the weekend. Who will name this bone? . . . The doctor in the last row, last seat, please . . . name this bone. “Eh . . .” “I should have read those sheets. ‘Doctor’ . . . huh? “Doctor, how do you open the cover?” “Just unlatch this hood, then pull back both lids.” “ Thank you sir . . . er, doctor. ■ -

Page 16 text:

 Anatomy is the basis of clinical medicine.

Page 18 text:

“Okay, let’s open her up! Okay, let’s go. “Okay.” “Right!” Okay, here she goes. Okay.” “You get over there and pull. I’ll pull from here.” Okay!” “Let's go.” “Okay.” Right! Just a second . . .” “Yes?” “We’re going too last. Let’s wait until someone else opens theirs first.” “Yes. Okay. Right.” “Okay, a couple of groups have opened theirs, l.et’s open up ours.” Yes.” Okay.” “Right. “Slowly! Easy does it.” The odor of formaldehyde is terrible!” “There it is.” There she is.” “Our first patient. Who’s going to start the dissection?” “How about you?” Me? I majored in psychology at Temple. You’re the biology major.” At Mount Saint Mary’s we got no experience with this.” “Someone has to start it.” 1 don’t think I can.” Please, not me. 1 feel ill!” Let's go, table number three. We haven't got all day!” Yes, doctor. “Somebody start, please. Here, give me the knife.” “Here.” God! If I could only sleep! Dissecting that cadaver ... my first patient . . . “That scalpel—my scalpel—slicing through her skin; no blood, just globules of fat oozing from the incision. And then the blade met bone, and that grating was transmitted from the blade through the handle to my spine. Yes, 1 felt it! That grating sensation was in my spine. My back was being cut into! “And that’s the essence of it all. Our world is comfortably designed to avoid the issue of mortality. Every construction of reality given to us from the cradle onward ignores the fact that we are flesh, that this, my arm. is meat. Ignite it and it will surely burn giving off a sickening odor. “How easy it is to see through the morality to the stark necessity which prohibits the butcher to sell lamb chops, pork chops, and human chops. And that necessity is avoidance of the fear and sense of helplessness which 1 now feel. And that necessity is a necessity. “I must do as all have done before me. I must avoid the issue. After all. all this is nothing new. Everyone has known it. It is simply an abiding fact that tomorrow may bring horror. But today is today. 1 have today. And anyway, tomorrow will be all right, most probably. Yes, I will be safe tomorrow, too. Tomorrow will be like today. Good night, doctor.”