University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine - Hippocratean Yearbook (Pittsburgh, PA)

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THE CLASSICAL 54 SYNDROME DHFINITIC ' lN : Tins is a disease, prcv.ilcin thrciui liout the ai;es. wliieh lias atfeeted a select ijroup ot individuals fortunate (?) enoutjh tci acquire it. Characterized .it first by anxiousncss, dreamini;. fearing, hoping, and praying for its on.set, tliis syndrome le.ives those it att.ieks with .mxiousness, dreams, fears, hopes, ,ind prayers that they can withstand its course ,ind fulfill its endowments. INCIDENCE: The unique fe.iture of this syndrome is th.it it .itfects hut one- hundred individu.ils. These one-hundred people arc those enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the class of 19.i4. Other syndromes of this type affect thousands of people, but only this sselect few were chosen to be the recipients of this particular one. This group ranges from Aarons to Zeedick; its ratio of male to female is 97 to ? (les jeuncs filles de la classe) . Geographically the va.st majority affected were from Pennsylvania. MORBID ANATOMY: Textbooks, of all sizes .ind merit, .ire the fund.iment.il pathological units. These have been supplemented by lectures, demonstrations, movies (snooze!), slides (more snooze!), and laboratories. Variation in their leader, location, length, .md content expl.iin the multiplicity of patliologic pictures. The primary morphologic m.inifestation is apparently focal injury to the nerve cells throughout the body. This resul ts in elation in some of the individuals, melancholia in others, and manic- depression in most. The entire disease process la.sts four years. The first two are devoted primarily to the depressive stage with the onset of the syndrome, the initial injury, and its major pathology. The la.st two ye.irs result in the manic stage with a progression of the di.sca.se, its climax, and demi.se. At this writing three of the four years have pa.s.sed. LABORATt RY blNDINCS: These ,iiv the te.itures of the first two ye.irs in the course of this affection. In the beginning there were the l.ibor.itories of gro.ss and microscopic anatomy. The findings here will never (?) be forgotten. These labs affected the class in many and v.iried w.iys. Dave Goodm.m, for example, .scurried hither and yon from di.ssecting t.ible to dissecting t.ible. one fine tl.iy, in ,i v.nn .ittempt to find th.it elusive right spleen ( we are bilaterally symmetrical. aren t we? ) Font.ma and Episcopo (the fungi boys) never did find the Inferior Ven.i Cava. The hundreds o slides in Histo contained .such ,i m.ize of little dots ,uid lines th.it most of the cla.ss decided to wait till Path to learn the former material ( stippling will never do! ). Gray sent Bodek. Michaels, and Pincus spinning along with most of the rest of the class. Ashor and Atwell will testify, too. th.it those little b.iby-pigs, so nicely sliced u| prepared, and .served, wvren ' t as appetizing as they were cracked up to be. Physiological Chemistry had its uriniferous aspects, and Russ Ander.son may still have that twenty- four hour specimen he .so tenaciously preserved in his refrigerator .it home over the enforced vacation of the big snmv. And it was all too true that Fusia and Gaylor weren ' t the only ones to Gram stain their fingers more often th.in tho.se bugs th.it cont.imin.ited everything and anything in the Bacteriology lab. As spring and the end of the Hr.st year arrived, all the members of this di.sea.se. bedraggled and li.iggard. did .in excellent job of drowning their sorrows in the free-flowMiig beer ,it North P.irk. This first year, filled with anxiety and apprehension, w.is a dillicult hurdle to overcome; it was, perhaps, the most difficult year, m.iinly because of Us uncert.iinty. But. .it l.ist. it w.is over. .ukI tlie class was one-fourth M.D. 46

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£ ' ■ J U N I O R S CLASS OF 1954

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There were one-hundred remissions as the summer of 1931 passed but the exacerbation was bound to come. September brought it on, and the subjects of the syndrome, with renewed vim and vigor, returned to the labs. Consideration of Physi- ology and Neuro started the grind again. Hermann and Hibhard. as well as Shaver, the Smith boys, and the rest of the class fell prone to the maze of ascending tracts, la teral cell columns, dorsal root ganglia, and preganglionic visceral efferents until all were as confused as the red, green, blue, and yellow diagrams so lavishly splashed through the notes. The plague of those !? smoked drums descended with full force and this phase of the syndrome almost sent more people to Western Psychiatric than anything else. Many types of therapy were attempted to combat that tragedy, and perhaps the most effective was that perfected by D ' Zmura, Rougraff, and others, i.e. gently touching the writing tip of the lever at just the right time to get the proper deflection (and the tracings looked just like the book. too!). Pharmacology drugged the heartiest of the group (Menzies was stopped just in time from drinking that strychnine with his lunch) ; perfusion reigned supreme and O ' Hara, Reigh, and Renton were only a few of those who thought they ' d never get done with that lengthy work. During Immunology the most chagrined members of the class were those who, politely following instructions, donated a few c.c. ' s of blood and were told several days later thay had positive Wassermans! (The culprits who switched the sera were apprehended finally with Dr. Stock ' s help.) And then it happened, that which possibly makes this class most unique — the boy scientist took over the Department of Pathology and the group became the guinea pigs of the new regime. This was the first class to be allowed to take its slides home (huzzah!), and the first to have whole autopsies presented (every Wednesday afternoon!). The manic stage here began to raise its head among the profound depression and the entire course was spotted with episodes of surprise quizzes ( !? ), and water- gun fights (with those pro-marksmen Gress, Rossi, Provan, and Tyson battling continu- ously with McClure and his machine gun) . Then Physical Diagnosis came and the group had its first taste of hospital life. At last Buffington, Constanza, Kartub, and the rest could strut around with those stethoscopes (the badge of ofHce) protruding no less than six inches from their coat pockets. And how Mme. Biello and Mademoiselles Griffith et Morganti abhored carrying their little black bags ( it just isn ' t ladylike ) . Diek Miller, the Scott boys, as well as Bradshaw, Danko, Holzinger, and the rest were properly confounded by the variety of lub-dubs, borborygmi, gurglings, swishes, and other noises they were supposed to hear with their scopes; and Yockey, Weigel, Tarr, and Van Marter are still trying to get the correct flatness, hyper-resonance, and dullness that they ' re supposed to by hitting two fingers together. And so ended the second year of this interesting syndrome; Kaebnick and Lowery liked it so much they decided to do it all over again (but as pharmacology-physiology instructors) ; and most of the class again attempted to uplift their spirits with another North Park beer scuffle. (Ludin even got engaged that day!) The summer had come, and what was left of the downtrodden group was one-half M.D. CLINICAL COURSE: Considered the most interesting portion of the syndrome, the clinical course occupies the last two years. At last the individuals affected by this disease have been admitted to the various hospitals of the city (from which they may never be released!). And so truly begins the manic stage of the syndrome. Spcer, Bradley, and the Brown boys forgot to answer when .iddressed Doctor by their first patients, but it certainly was a wonderful feeling. Hairston. McAlpine. and Manns are still trying to distinguish D.T.D. from M.fe Ft., and Marks, Patterson, and Vermeire are only a [47]