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ART AND
MEDICINE

A Poem for the Ages

By Fred H. Olin, MD

Below is an Eponymic Epic I wrote during my first semester of medical school here in San Antonio back in late
1969. It was published in a short-lived student newspaper called “The Organ for the Artificial Dissemination of Infor-
mation.” The paper lasted about 3 years, before it was suppressed by Dr. Truman Blocker, the “Temporary Institutional
Head.” Dr. Blocker took Dean Carter Pannill’s place when he and the original chair of the Department of Medicine
were fired by the University of Texas Board of Regents during the summer of 1972. Anyway, here it is:

60 Minutes Ago or An Auerbach

The Anatomy Department came right out and said “Sphincter of Oddi,
“Things should not be called by men’s names, (live or dead.) Pacchionian body,
Accordingly, henceforth, and this is no whim, Pouches of Morison-Douglas.
We’ll not be using even one eponym.” Tubus Fallopius,
Tubus Eustachius,
So they taught their courses in late ‘69 Circles of Douglas and Willis.
And for two or three minutes it all went just fine.
The teachers spoke out in voices loud and clear, “Howship’s lacunae,
And here’s what they said for all students to hear: (and those of Morgagni,)
Rathke, Camper, Purkinje.
“The canal of Schlemm Gland of Bartholin,
The cells of Schwann Arcus Riolan,
The foramen of Monro, And the duct of Santorini.
Old Muller’s muscle,
Hassall’s corpuscle “There are more than these forty,
Tetralogy of Fallot. (Like the Organ of Corti)
That you med students can truly depend on.
“Fontana’s eye spaces, Brunner and Harder,
Bell’s palsy cases, Ampulla of Vater,
Meissner, Nissl, Ruffini; To say nothing of Achilles’ tendon.”
Thebesian veins,
Cajal silver stains, This conveys the idea I’m trying to give,
Cooper, Cowper, Pacini. Of anatomist’s innate compunction.
For without the use of these historical names
“The disks of Merkel, They’d never be able to function.
The cave of Meckel,
Foramina of Luschka-Magendie. Fred H. Olin, MD, is a semi-retired orthopaedic
Apparatus of Golgi, surgeon who was born before WWII, but not long
Tubules of Malpighi, enough for him to be able to remember much
Horner, Henson and Henle. about it.

30 San Antonio Medicine • July 2017