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

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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

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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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Twenty-Five Years The Scores of a quarter of a century ago make interesting reading, particularly those parts that concern men whom we know today. In 1917 Morton McCutcheon and Thomas Mc' Millan fwith a mustachej were seniors. Of Dr. McCutcheon it was said, He was given first place in the honor group of 1917. We are confident in his prognosis-a successful physician. And of Dr. McMillan: 'Tyom' is one of the best liked fellows in the class, even though he is tending to become 'robustf We'l1 always remember his 'Good mawr1in,' everybody. How ah youfall feelin' today? The 1918 SCOPE also yielded various interesting side lights. Dr. Pendergrass was known as Gene or Pendy and it was said, At first sight Pendy creates the impression of being a busy man. But on better aquaintance he waxes more friendly and sociable and he might even invite you to a game of checkers or something else exciting. Another graduate of that year was Dr. Ravdin. That little fat boy, who answers to 'Ravie' is a holy terror when it comes to getting grades without working for them, but that is only one of his minor accomplishments, his chief accomplishment being with' the ladies. They strive for his favor like children for Castoria. His mere presence in the city enables the Bell Telephone Company to declare an extra dividend each year. Dr. Schmidt was on the SCOPE board and led the class and there is no reason why Carl should not, as he lacks nothing but hair on the top of his head. Among those of the faculty listed in the SCOPES of that time as being on leave of absence in military service were: William Pepper, assistant professor of clinical pathology and Dean of the Medical School, Edward Krumbhaar, assistant professor of research medicine and associate in medicine, J. Harold Austin, associate in medicineg Truman G. Schnabel, instructor in medicine, George Wilson, instructor in neurology and assistant instructor in medicine, Frederick Leavitt, instructor in Neurolf Ago OSYS Alexander Randall, assistant instructor in genito-urinary surgeryg Balduin Lucke, assistant instructor in Pathology, O. H. Perry Pepper, asso' ciate in medicine and in Research Surgeryg and Eldridge L. Eliason, instructor in Surgery. Dr. Kern was on a naval hospital ship, the U.S.S. Solace, and Dr. Richards was working on Shock at the British Army Medical Corps Laboratories. More information about the men in service was contained in the 1919 SCOPE than in the one for 1918. Dr. Eliason was one of the first to go, bidding the class farewell in his Major's uniform and ref turning in that of a Lieutenant Colonel. Lt. Col. john B. Carnett, writing from Base Hospital Number Twenty, described some of the activities in France. Eliason is away as head of a surgical team. Their team is known as the 'Speed Team,' to whose care is entrusted all the very desperate patients, whose only chance for life is a short, swift, skilful operation. At their previous station Eli was surgical C. O., that is the surgeon in charge of all surgery done at that hospital. This team has made an excellent record in the Chateau Thierry, St. Mihiel and Argonne drives. Randall left us long since to be a consultant to a division. Leavitt has been doing front line work in a Neurological Hospital. Williams-in civil life an obstetrician-missed his only chance at pracf ticing his civilian specialty by being away on leave when a report came in that a refugee girl had the 'grippe' and was waiting to see a doctor. Our dietitian went to investigate and was barely in time to oliiciate at the arrival of a nine pound baby. Of the Seniors in 1919 it was written that Francis Heed Adler 'debilitated' between following Burr as a psychiatrist or his dad as a proctologist-a case of 'Heads or Tails,' but as for that and other things, give the boy time. Dr. Grant had also gained a certain renown among his classmates. Chubby is an amateur pugilist of ability but the championship he holds lies in another field:-he is Twcntyrcight