University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine - Scope Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

Page 13 text:

LOCKS BACK By DR. WILLIAM PEPPER WILLIAM PEPPER AB., MD., hon. Sc.D. A.B., University of Pennsylvania, 1894, M.D., 1897, hon.Sc.D., 1932. Assistant Professor of Clinical Pathology, University of Pennsylvania, 1908-18, Dean, School of Medicine, 1912 to date. Trustee of The Philadelphia Free Library, Member of The American Medical Association lCouncil on medical education and hospitals, 1917-271. Member of Association of Medical Colleges lpresident, 19201. Member of Philadelphia College of Physicians. the University catalogue as the most complete building devoted to medical science in the U. S. ln the session 1876-77, there were 467 students in the School. ln 1877, the course was lengthened to three years and although there were then three classes instead ot two, the longer time needed to obtain a medical degree deterred many trom en- tering our School. The number ot students then ran between 200 and 400 until the big jump which began in 1890, reaching, as has been mentioned, 920 in the session 1896-7. The increase in the length at the course from three to tour years in 1893, seemed to have only a temporary intluence on the size ot the entering class. Since there were tour instead ot three classes in the School at a time when so many wanted to study lvledicine, this large number ot students resulted. With so many to be taught, very little laboratory work was then possible. All students, ot course, dissected and worked in the Chemistry Laboratory, but there was not the room nor equipment tor any real laboratory work in Physiology, Bacteriology or Pharmacology. Gradually this peak load dropped to the 266 in 1913. The number then began to increase again, and as our methods ot teaching improved through more individual instruction, it became necessary to limit the size ot our classes. First, in 1916, a limit at one hundred was set tor the First Year Class. This number was gradu- ally increased to the present time, when 120 are admitted. ln the early days, Medical Schools boasted about the large number ot students enrolled, but this has all changed. For the tirst hundred years, students paid each Protessor individually tor a ticket ot admission to his lectures, and as many students did not care to BEERMAN- Don't say as one of my friends did.-'A blood Wassermann should be taken on every single pregnant woman.' Nine

Page 15 text:

fourth years, one-half the subject matter being covered each year. Attendance at these lectures was excellent because there were no textbooks of Surgery for students available. The above picture was taken in the North Amphitheatre of Logan Hall. State admitted to the First Year Class. Before the Civil War, tram 25 to 30 students were in attendance tram Tennesseeg but since that time, we have had but about one-halt dozen in any one year. From South Carolina there were as many as 20 students during some years, but there have been only about three or tour since the War. Mississippi sent as many as 25 at one time, but has not been very well represented since the War The enrollment trom the northern states was not attected as much by the War as might have been expected. The high water mark was in l897, in which year over S60 Pennsylvanians were matriculated. Before the Civil War, there were in our School more students tram south ot the Mason and Dixon line than there were tram the north. STRECKER- One thing alone prevents a man from looking at himself--the necessity of bolstering his EGO. Eleven