UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT

Interview #223
SENN, MILTON J. E.

SENN, Milton J. E. (1902-1990)
Medical Student
At UW: 1922-1927

Interviewed: 1980	 
Interviewer: Self-recorded
Length: 1 hour  

Background; Instructors; High percentage of women in class; Observations about medical training; Career after medical school. 

Tape 1/Side 1

00:00:01	An introduction.  Member of the Class of 1927.  The 1977 reunion.  Low attendance.  Brought back many memories.

00:01:28	Dorothy Whitcomb.  Archivist of the William S. Middleton Health Sciences Library at UW.  MS mentions two previous oral histories he has done.  Reference to Paul Clark's book.  Glenn Frank gave out diplomas.  Simple but moving ceremony.  Seventy-nine years since beginning of Department of Medicine.

00:05:05	Class characterized as unique because of size, and because a high percentage of women.  Many students older than the average med student.  Names some of these students.

00:07:54	Most of these students had little money.  It was this lack that brought MS to the 	UW, and kept him there.

00:08:40	Background.  Father had died when young.  MS was used to working for education.  Mother ran a boarding house.  Moved this "operation" to Madison later.  Jobs MS had while at the University.  Most interesting was summer spent as an instructor in physiology under Walter Meek.  About schooling.  Where he feels his education is lacking.  A problem with getting "diploma" from the Milwaukee Normal School.  Problems MS had because many assumed he was Jewish.

00:19:10	First years in Madison.  Worked hard.  Getting into the first class of Medical School.  Dean Bardeen.

00:21:20	Pre-clinical medical years.  Hard ones.  Why.

00:22:40	Dr. Bardeen stands out in MS's memories of those first years.  Why.  Interesting and awesome.  A lesson learned.  About Bardeen.  Physical characteristics.  His exams.  Personal traits.

00:26:59	Problems with human dissection.  MS didn't enjoy it, was slower than his classmates.

00:29:40	Dr. Bast.  Enjoyed research.  Had MS and classmate John Grab working with him.  The project.  An inhumane one.

00:31:59	Walter Sullivan in Anatomy was likeable.  A skilled and competent teacher.  Had also heard of William Snow Miller, though never met him.

00:32:43	Never invited to attend faculty meetings.  This an example of the distance kept between faculty and medical school students.

00:34:11	Walter Meek--chairman of Physiology.  MS's remembrances of him.

00:34:52	Dr. Eyster--the "Virginia gentleman."  Traits admired.

00:35:38	Percy Dawson.  MS regrets he never knew him intimately.  The students were given the impression he was an oddball.

00:37:18	The Department of Pharmacology.  What it brings to MS's mind.  Chauncey Leake, Professor Loevenhart.  Leake's remarkable memory for faces and names.  One of Leake's final exams.  The lesson MS learned from this.

00:43:41	The picnic Chauncey Leake and his wife had for the medical students.

00:44:04	Charles Henry Bunting.  Another excellent teacher.  His unique exams.  His son.

00:46:28	End of side.

Tape 1/Side 2

00:46:30	Dr. Bunting lived on same street as MS in New Haven.  They would meet in Bunting's home.  John Yeats.

00:47:28	Dr. Bradley.  Rarely seen by medical students. Elmer Servinghouse.  Lots of contact with him.

00:49:03	Department of Psychiatry.  Formidable.  William Lorenz.  An experience at Mendota State Hospital.  The lesson learned.

00:52:43	Hans Reese.  Never impressed MS particularly.

00:53:25	Joseph Evans.  Outstanding in the Department of Medicine.  An outstanding experience connected with him--an oral exam.

00:55:23	Dr. Middleton.  A poor lecturer.  An anecdote about skipping his class.

01:00:21	More remarks on Middleton.

01:01:14	Teachers in Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat, Obstetrics, and Radiology tended to be in private practice in Madison as well.  Not that committed to being teachers.

01:01:39	Dr. Harper.  MS felt he was cruel in managing his patients.

01:02:06	The way Radiology classes were run.  Not a good technique.

01:03:20	Frederick Gaenslen (Orthopedics).  MS appreciated him.

01:04:01	The lack of compassion in many of his professors.  Taught "mechanics" of medicine instead.

01:05:22	Erwin Schmidt.

01:05:55	Alton Ochsner.  More exciting than Schmidt.  Research done with Ochsner.

01:06:41	Pediatrics.  Uninviting at Wisconsin.  John Gonce.

01:09:10	Horace Kent Tenney.  Took a personal interest in MS.

01:10:00	An interesting experience in Psychiatry.  Dr. Coon.

01:11:39	Taking of a medical history.  A very necessary and important item.  How it was done here.  MS doesn't like the method.

01:13:31	Not enough patients at the University Hospital for medical students to use as clinical subjects.  How this was overcome.  Three month internship in Chicago.  MS talks of his internship.  Dr. Middlefort.  His kindness.  A very versatile physician.

01:20:45	Closing.  Characteristics of Medical School in early years.  MS's career after leaving Madison.

01:25:04	End of interview.

END