Students and science teachers from 10 Louisiana colleges toured New Orleans medical schools Friday and saw heart and blood vessel research "in action.''
They watched the beating hearts of laboratory animals being measured by electronic monitors. They saw alligators, turtles, and other sea and land life being prepared for experiments; watched a computer whizzing through thousands of cards containing data about arterial disease, and learned of newly discovered ways to determine the molcular structure of certain blood cells.
The "open house" visit was sponsored by the Louisiana Heart Association in conjunction with the Tulane and Louisiana State university medical schools. Its purpose was to help science and pre-med students at state colleges observe at first hand the lab set-ups and the scientists who are carrying^ on senior research projects. RESEARCH CAREER
"A research career appeals to the doctor who realizes that 4000 years of medicine cannot be completely covered in his four years as a medical student/ said Dr. Thomas Hernandez, professor and "head of the pharmacology department at LSU.
"There are always some few physicians, perfectionists of a type, who are not completely satisfied that a certain medicine will work in a certain way. They want to know why it works. And once they have found out why, they want to know the answer to other possibilities which have arisen. These are the natural researchers and they are likely to choose careers as scientists."
Dr. John G. Arnold Jr. of Loyola, chairman of the Louisiana Heart Association Undergraduate Research Committee, told the students that the dozen major demonstrations arranged for them would enable those considering scientific careers to learn more about the methods involved.
Dr. Sam A. Threefoot, director of research at Touro Infirmary and chairman of the Louisiana Heart Association Research Committee, welcomed the students on behalf of the Tulane Medical school, where he is also associate professor of medicine.
TALKS GIVEN
Dr. Gerald S. Berenson. associate professor of medicine at LSU, told the group of research work at his institution and of considerations involved in the choice of both medicine and full time scientific research as a lifetime carer. The LHA research movie "The Search" was shown at the LSU Auditorium.
Talks and demonstrations were given at Tulane by Drs. Charles C. Sprague, Walter J. Stuckey Jr., Ruth Hoffman, Earl Aldinger, Ralph Lazzara, Charles Pearce, John Tyler and Hans Weill.
LSU speakers included Drs, Chalmers A. McMahan, A. Sidney Harris, Henry C. McGill, Bertram Albert Glass, Jack Geer and Fred G. Brazda.
About 70 students and professors attended from McNeese State college, Lake Charles; Northwestern S t ate college, Natchitoches; Centenary college, Shreveport; Southeastern LSU, Baton Rouge; Northeast Louisiana State college, Monroe; and St. Mary's Dominican
college, Loyola, Tulane and Xavier universities, New Or-1 leans. PHOTO: DR. LOUIS TOTH of the physiology depart-ment of Louisiana State university medical school shows an animal heart model to students from a dozen Louisiana colleges who toured the Tulane and LSU medical depart-ments Friday in an "Open House" program sponsored by the Louisiana Heart Association. The students are (from left) Aurita Smith, Carolyn Wills, Kenneth D. Fufch, John Sehexnaidre, Leonard J. Green and Phyllis Manda. Miss Manda is from the University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, and the others are from Northeast Louisiana college, Monroe.
