150 New Medical School Grads Get M.D. Certificates

One hundred fifty Medical School students left their test tubes and cadavers for the last time today as the annual Commencement exercises were held in Tercentenary Theater.

Despite accelerated and distorted schedules, curtailed pre-medical training, and other war-born irregularities, the graduating class is one of the largest the Med School has ever graduated, and also the youngest in average age.

Some of the new M.D.'s spent as little as two of the usual four years in undergraduate pre-med training, while others were forced to stay as many as 13 months in third year medical instruction. And to top it off, the grads have had to compete with returning veterans in their search for internships.

Geography

The new doctors come from states all over the country as well as Egypt, Yugoslavia, Ireland, and China. This wide regional divergence is due to a policy of geographical distribution inaugurated by President Conant which has spread from the College to the various graduate schools including the Medical School.

The Med School's Class of '48 was among the last to be taught by such men as the late Walter Cannon, who died from overexposure to x-rays incurred in his study of the gastro-intestinal tract, and Eliot C. Cutler '09, the late Moseley Professor of Surgery.

When they entered the School, the first thing the prospective doctors saw was the inscription in Vanderbilt Hall's feyer--"In the field of observation, chance favors the prepared mind." Working to achieve a "prepared mind" has been a hard, 24 hour-a-day task, but the grads still found time for a little fun.

Such Medical School traditions as the Lynwood Grill, playing tennis in the court yard, and Aesculspian Club plays fared well during '48's stay in the Med School.