DOCTORS' ODYSSEY

In sending down from the Hygiene Building his first annual report of the college health department, Dr. Bock has officially closed the pages of one of the most remarkable chapters of Harvard medical annals. Taking over the reins at a time when the old guard brought the department to the shocking state of ineptitude that culminated in the wild-fire German measles epidemic in the spring of 1935, the new regime has brought the organization back to hitherto unscaled heights of competence and efficiency.

Chief of the improvements that have taken place in the first year is the establishment of a corps of young doctors in the Hygiene Building, available all day to give immediate and effective aid to the suffering. Then, side by side with these new facilities, comes the revamping of Stillman, and the use of the metropolitan hospitals to care for all bad cases, both medical and surgical. Thus the Infirmary, antiquated as it is, has been put to the best advantage, while the more ample resources of Boston have bolstered up the services that Stillman cannot supply, Another innovation of vital concern to the college is the psychiatric clinic. Every year a number of maladjusted individuals come to college, and because of a variety of troubles--finances, family, studies, and even love--fail to fit into the picture. When the psychiatric division takes charge of such men, they are generally sent back on the path to mental health.

The past year marks a new era of ability and efficiency in the Hygiene Department, and the improvement in the care of students more than amply justifies jacking up the Infirmary fee. It is satisfying to see that the University which stands for supremacy in medicine throughout the country has fumigated its own College house and is now giving its undergraduates the kind of treatment to which they are entitled.