USC School of Medicine - Asklepiad Yearbook (Los Angeles, CA)

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SENIORS L. to R. Tibbs, Schreiner, Stanton, Shea, Arthur, Smole, Campbell, Gregory, Peterson. Terrified, but at last in medical school, should be the motto of our first year. The year was prefaced by an orien- tation lecture on something or other by the emminent Dr. Stainbrook (the most foul-mouthed boy in the neighborhood, now the most full-mouthed). I think he told us how to make one big triangle out of three little ones, but I don ' t recall why we should want to. Pulok, convinced that he wasn ' t speaking English, spent the following three days reading his English-Indian Dictionary. To our horror, however, only too clearly did we under- stand the sickening words of Dr. Patek on that first day when he informed us that our friends were waiting in the next room. When told that we were to grease and wrap the hands, feet, and heads of our deceased friends, our first impulse was really a fleeting one. That is, Let ' s get the hell out of here. In fact, one member did, which explains the odd number of 67. Pops may graduate anyway though; his name is still being called at roll. The rest of us, taking firm hold of ourselves (a hand placed firmly over the mouth) en- tered into the spirit of the occasion just as if we had been playing with dead things all of our lives. Stomachs slowly settled to normal and we energetically dug into the meat of the thing. Christenson, surgeon and cow anatomist par excellence, made himself known immediately for his persist- ent advice as to the way it was done on the horse, or con- tinual referenecs to the way I did it in surgery. One student obviously terrified at Dr. Patek ' s constant admonition that only clean lab coats wer e to be worn, wouldn ' t even wear a shirt. Anatomy was slowly mastered; McCormick made the discovery of the year by isolating the Laryngeal- penial nerve; Suits and the campus police discovered a new midnight entrance to room 369; and kudos go to Oscar for having spent a total of 3 hours in the study of anatomy. The mneumonic device was used to its limits; we now remember no anatomy, but we all have a good repartee of dirty rhymes. The study of Physiology is a, well a, if a, one a, takes a , piece of a, x ray a, film a, and a cuts a, the urn a, a distal a end a, so as a, to a form a point a Well, physiology isn ' t really a course in arrow making or Indian Lore. It ' s really a course in the extermination of turtles, farm anirnois, and household pets. Who will ever forget the lectures by Dr. Drury who has been known to lecture for better than an hour without saying a single word; or the not only interest- ing but flavored oratory of Dr. Meehan. Many challenges were afforded by physiology, and some were issued, such as, ' If you put that God-damned stuff in my ear again, I ' ll break your neck. Or, Keep your hand in that bucket or we ' ll dump it on you. To keep us on our toes we were offered snap quizzes and unscheduled hour exams. A typical exam question would be: If a 200 lb. midget after riding 3 miles up hil lost 194 lbs., what would be the quan- tity of NaCI that dripped on the rear tire? A certain in- structor staring condescendingly through his hyertensive retinopathy and coke-bottle bottom lenses informed us re- peatedly that all we had to know to pass physiology wa s everything. All the while the threat of the gastric tube hung heavily over our heads. All was not trauma, however; Bob Futoran provided enjoyment for all with his choreographic interpretation of the pathological Rhomberg at the Phi Delta Epsilon rush party; amazing to all, he became a member of that fraternity. Also in physiology we got our first taste of surgery, and Allen discovered the use of the panic button when he cut the carotid artery in the controlled hemorrhage experiment which suddenly became uncontrolled.

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f MESSAGE TO SENIOR CLASS X. Medicine is a profession which affords its disciples great opportunity for a productive, active and zestful life. As a member of the graduating class, you will soon be in a position to take full advantage of this sublime opportunity. With such prospects, why is there need for a message to the graduating class? It is perhaps, that experience shows some individuals allow the exciting challenge to pass them by. While there is no simple formula for the achievement of zestful, vigorous, productive activity in your medical life, certain principles apply. To begin with, you and only you can be responsible for your activities. Therefore, the first responsi- bility to yourself is to set your own goals. After careful, unhurried study and contemplation, you may begin to realize the desires, small and great, which guide your life and will guide you in your pro- fession. The first step is important because it places emphasis on what you want to do in life. It is un- doubtedly true that unhappiness, through failure to acquire a sense of achievement in medicine, is almost never due to lack of ability to achieve. The real cause of failure to achieve is that the phy- sician has not properly analyzed his aspirations or established his goals. This is the stumbling block. You can achieve essentially what you wish, but first you must know what it is that you wish. The next principal to fully appreciate is that zeal and enthusiasm can be maintained only by an active approach. The passive approach which seeks to avoid responsibility guarantees boredom and dissatisfaction. A dreary existence results. Yet actively attacking problems that you have set for your- self leads to a self investment that is almost always associated with zeal and enthusiasm. You have undoubtedly encountered individuals engaged in the practice of medicine who posses no ardor for their work. These joyless persons rarely learn more than is told to them; hence, rarely learn much after graduation. The thrill of discovery and understanding seems to escape them. They appear to be clockwatching for retirement. Perhaps only in retirement do they visualize, too late, what satisfaction a vigorous, active approach to medicine could have given them. You hove been told many times during your school days that you must develop habits of self teaching which continue day by day throughout your life. You have been told that a graduation, your education is not ending but is just beginning. With these statements, no one would argue. Yet there are few persons who are able to develop and maintain persistent study habits unless they hove ac- quired an active approach to exploration, discovery, and understanding in their everyday work. The passive, dutiful approach destroys the fun of achievement, and without the fun, the habits of self learning fade away. Therefore, your ability to experience zeal in your work depends first upon your ability to set your own goals. Next, self investment as an active, rather than passive, participant in your everyday work heightens interest and enthusiasm. The patients of a physician with this type of approach ore almost certain to obtain fine medical care as well as inspiration to aid them in their own living. Unfortunately, there are road blocks that might inhibit your zeal in your work and continued self education. Perhaps the biggest rood block will be problems within yourself that have been developed through years of parental direction and direction from your teachers in school. There have always been significant persons who have told you what to do. Some direction was necessary and you un- doubtedly benefited from it. You could not expect to start from scratch and personally prove all that hod been discovered since cave-man days. You also had to learn the cooperation that civilization demands. But it is fair to say that direction hod disadvantages as well as advantages. Frequently, per- sons who have been over taught and over directed develop resistance to learning and work. They associate learning and understanding with unpleasant supervision. Development and intellectual growth, in this situation, become most difficult unless one begins to understand his resistance. Another road block to zeal in your work may be unreasonable demands on your time. Great de- mands on your time could lead to a routine, unimaginative approach in which you will not be doing your best; hence, your sense of accomplishment could be diminished. This is not to imply that you may expect your existence to be free from humdrum tasks. These are your responsibilities, too. Nevertheless, you must remain on guard to be certain that your approach to life and your profession does not be- come humdrum. No day is complete without a portion, be it ever so small, of leisure time — a time spent as you wish it to be. Significant work is almost never done by people without leisure. The in- dividual who boasts that he is so busy that he has no time for leisure, deserves our pity, but surely not our respect. For some, the practice of medicine will impose a third rood block to zeal. Many patients coming to you for help will be ill partially or largely because of problems with interpersonal relationships. Often these patients will help create problems which will make your professional interpersonal dealings with them difficult and unpleasant. In these situations only a true understanding of your reactions and the reac- tions of the patient will keep you in a frame of mind in which you can properly render care. Now at the end of your formal medical school training, you should know that your faculty is proud of you and wishes you well. The fulfillment of your productive goals by your own productive efforts will give us vicarious pleasure. In each graduate we have confidence. We shall always be available, not to tell you what to do, but to be of help in any way possible. Phil R. Manning, M.D.

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SENIORS Biochemistry, taught (?) by Dr. Trojanility Saltman, was an osterized world of esoteric-entropic-teleologic-ose. This is where a bunch of little enzymes, all doing little things, which when put together and salted lightly with buggerup-ase can ' t even defy the hydrostatic pressure of a fire hose. We learned that Michealis-Mentan isn ' t an after dinner drink, although Tibbs and Suits were willing to try, but that it is very important to enzymes, because, well, it ' s their way of doing it. Al Lasnover, with an otherwise clean slate, was reprimanded 1000 times by Dr. Saltman with a single jesture and 4 small words. Actually, Dr. Saltman ' s lectures were informal, interesting, and unimportant. In his delightful manner he managed to keep most of us awake (except for Bubien, but then everyone failed there, too) with frequent, humorous analogies in a language that even Colburn could understand. This course found us with notebooks and cards crammed full of strange structures. Before the year was half over Cooper had used 30 notebooks, and Milton was on his third roll of butcher paper. Dr. Saltman ' s ego became ir- reparably damaged by the restrictions of the thesbian life and toward the end of the year, he became hopelessly addicted to LSD. This became apparent to all when the Biochem final was given. The exam itself was a schizophrenic delight, but to turn it in one had to place it in the properly numbered envelope, seal it, and stack it thusly in a ritual decipherable only by a derranged mind. Cellular Structure and Function was really histology just like in other schools. The lectures were well prepared, short (less than 5 hours), and appropriately placed after lunch. With full bellies and a supressed gastro-colic reflex, we at- tempted frantically to keep pace with Bubbles . Over the scratch of many flying pens could be heard the gentle snoring of John Bubien. As the year wore on, the class shifted from ssats near the door to those by the windows. From this vantage point one could invariably see the relaxed figures of Herman and Blanchette lying on the grass 3 stories below. After all, Ron had lost his elevator key, and Steve wouldn ' t desert a friend. Aside from long lab periods spent in the coffee shop listening to the peaceful strands of Tequila , Schreiner developed a fondness for cigars, Abrams devised plans for doing away with a certain instructor, and once in a while microscopes were brought out and dusted off. Dr. Birr Yang took us beyond the cellular level. Here he taught us some of the characteristics of what went on inside the cell, as well as a neat way to get rid of 2000 tons of guinea pigs. Entertainment was provided by the erudite questions asked by Graham and Allen. Two refugees, one from the Irish Rebellion and the other from the Spanish Revolution, had somehow gotten jobs with the anatomy department and ended up teaching, You guys have got to know this stuff Neuroanatomy. With one of Cajal ' s smashed microscopes in Dr. Santisteban ' s hand, and a shillalah in Dr. Flanagan ' s, they rode herd on the confused 67 down the nervous pathways. The nervous sys- tem was shown to simply be a mixture of interwoven line of various colors on the blackboard, and a few hundred thou- sand fly-specks on the slides. Heretofore, Ravenna had thought that the diencephalon was a Catholic home for the mentally retarded, and Allen still thinks that the Mammillo-thalamic tract is a place where the Mexican dog races are held. All that need be said about Physical Diagnosis is that most of us are still mad at not being allowed to be in the group with Courington, Suits, and Schreiner. And so went the first year. Z . In September the comic relief returned; battle-hardened veterans of the freshman year, armed to the teeth with hemoglobinometers, 1 compound microscope with oil im- mersion objective and mechanical stage, 1 pair of medium forceps, 1 box of cover slips (no. 2, 18 mm), 1 red wax pencil for writing on glass, 1 towel for drying glassware, 1 box microscope slides, condescending airs and a various assort- ment of umm humms and head nods for appropriate occa- sions. It was the vogue to place our stethescopes in our pockets in such a way that the maximum length of tubing dangled out so that all would know our calling. The theme of this year might well hove been Don ' t read it; just copy it down. This is well illustrated by Bob Futoran ' s monumental achievement of copying down the final exam of a Physics class that proceeded Clinical Path. Also I ' m sure half the class has buried somewhere deep in their path notes a detaihd map of the Monrovia hills. Dr. Clelland ' s home, and how much of the area was destroyed by fire. Micro B led us into a strange world of bugs, germs, mut- ants, phage, and Dr. Gordon. In lab we learned the right way to kill rats, the wrong way to kill rats, and several inadvertant ways of killing rats. We also learned why not to boil scissors, how to give chicken eggs the flu, to put Hepatitis Harvey to the end of the line when receiving Tuberculin skin tests, and how to flunk Dr. Gordon ' s exams. A typical exam answer might have been: (1) a, (2) b, (3) a and b, (4) c and d, (5) a and d, (6) a, b, and c might be true but probably isn ' t because of sexual incompatability of Tl and T3 mentioned in question 3, (7) Tl and T3 don ' t have sex problems, (8) everybody is impotent except you and me, and I ' m not so sure about you. Danny Cooper became so engrossed in his work that he repeatedly shar- pened his mechanical pencil in the pencil sharpener. One day he was actually seen to walk straight into a wall and continue uncertainly down the hall. One member of our class made history with his modification of the Ziehl-Neilson technique of staining. He placed the bunsen burner directly under the slide for a full 10 minutes. The slide burned fine. The room burned fine too. The rest of the building only burned pretty good.