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

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DEAN WILLIAM PEPPER WORLD WAR I-MAJOR PEPPER, M.C. TWE TY- FIVE YEAR M10 WILL endeavor to describe how the first World War affected the students in our Medical School. I recognize my limitations in so doing, because I was in the Dean's Office for three months while the school was in session. I went to camp in June, 1917, and was ordered back on inactive duty in April, 1918. I again went to camp early in Novem- ber, 1918, just before the Armistice and returned to my duties in the Dean's office about January 1, 1919. In December, 1916, the Secretary of War wrote to thc Deans of the various Medical Schools about the possibility of the introduction into the cur- icula of a course especially adapted to Medical Sanitary and Surgical training for the Army and Navy and asked that representatives from all the schools attend a meeting in Washington on January 6, 1917. On January 27, the Surgeon General informed us that Colonel Henry Page had been ordered to Philadelphia for the purpose of deliver' ing lectures on Military Medicine and Camp Sanif tation at our Medical School. Colonel Page had graduated from our School in 1894. Later he was to command the Medical Officers Training Camp at Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, which was called Camp Greenleaf. It was to this camp that many of our Faculty went for a period of training. Colonel Page arranged a course of lectures in which some of our Faculty participated. War was declared on April 6, 1917, and the first registraf tion for men between 21 and 31 was on june 5, 1917, and the next registration for men who in the meantime had reached the age of 21 was on June 5, 1918. In August, 1917, it became possible for the stu' dents then in the School to enroll in the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps. This corresponded some' what to the present Medical Administrative Corps in keeping the students in School and preventing them from being drafted. In October, 1918, the Medical Enlisted Reserve Corps men were transferred to the newly organized Students Army Training Corps and then began real military training. Line officers were ordered to the University. Some of the 2nd lieutenants of Infantry were young college students fresh from an Officers Training Camp, one of them a freshman from Cornell University seems to have particularly irritated the medical students, all of whom were older than he. Corporals and Sergeants were made and after a few days of intentional in' efliciency were broken, their successors following the same routine. Twenty-six

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FACULTY 'LLOYD L. THOMPSON, JR., M.D. Former Instructor in Anatomy 'WESLEY D. THOMPSON, M.D. Instructor in Surgery EDWARD S. TI-IORPE, JR., B.S.,M.D. Former Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Assistant to the Dean 'l'ARTHUR M. WALKER, A.B., MD. Associate Professor of Pharmacology GEORGE L. WEINSTEIN, M.A., M.D. Instructor in Obstetrics and Gynecology ROY G. WILLIAMS, A.M., M.D. Associate Professor of Anatomy ELIZABETH D. WILSON, A.B., M.D. Instructor in Pathology 'FFRANCIS C. WOOD, A.B., M.D. Assistant Professor of Medicine APOLOGY We regret the necessity of using these few pictures of our Faculty when so many additions should be made, but many factors have prevented our presenting a more complete gallery of those to whom we owe so much. 'In National Service SCHNABEL- Every physician should look upon every patient as he would upon a game of chess. A game, often complex, but possible of solution. 'Twenty-fue

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The First and Second year classes in the Medical School comprised Company 10 and the Third and Fourth, Company 11. By the middle of October, the students were being inducted into thc Army and being measured for uniforms, were drilling and marching to mess in the old chocolate factory on Woodland Avenue below 33rd Street. The dormif tories were turned into barracks and the students were crowded into all available space. Great was the excitement when pay day came around. Not all the students, however, were in the Army service as about a half dozen students from the 'Third and Fourth year classes were in the Naval Reserves. In the early Fall of 1918, came the great inf fluenza epidemic to complicate matters further. Fourth Year Class work was suspended during October. An Emergency Hospital was started in the Delta Psi Fraternity house on Locust Street and medical students acted as nurses and orderlies. Fourth Year students were working all over the city, assisting doctors or even acting as physicians when they were not immediately available. Many students worked at the old MedicofChirurgical Hospital on the Parkway. Two of the class died while working in this way. A tablet commemorating their service and devotion is on the wall outside thc Laboratory of Bacteriology. On November 11, came the Armistice, but de- mobilization of the Students Army Training Corps did not begin until December 6, 1918, and then finally on December 18, all were discharged from the Army. Army clothes were worn, however, until February, 1919, when civilian clothes once more began to appear. As I look back on it, I believe the attempt through the Students Army Training Corps to give so much military training to medical students during their medical course was a failure. Eleven hours of drill a week interfered with class work and study. The crowded barracks in the dormitories with orders that all lights be out by 10 p.m., Guard duty, Sanitary corps duties, etc. interrupted serious attention to study. Fortunately, the end of all soldiering came soon and medical work could go on in an orderly fashion. WILLIAM PEPPER. Dean. Shadows of things to come? The Students' Army Training Corps in 1918 A l 1 , l 'Twcntyfseven