October 1958

Alumni Bulletin

Summer 1994

Yale Medicine

October 1958
Alumni Bulletin

“Discovery of the first hormone ever isolated from the pineal gland has been reported by Dr. Aaron B. Lerner and his associates in the Section of Dermatology. The new hormone has been named Melatonin.

“The laboratory technique developed by the Yale investigators for isolating Melatonin was worked out during three years of exhaustive research. More than 250,000 beef pineal glands were supplied by the Armour Laboratories. Chemically, the new hormone belongs in the class of compounds known as hydroxyindoles. Although the function of Melatonin has not yet been determined in humans or in animals, tests in frogs reveal that it lightens the skin shade and reverses the darkening effect of other hormones.”

Summer 1994
Yale Medicine

“At a medical school so steeped in tradition, Dean Gerard N. Burrow, M.D. ’58, knows full well how difficult it is to start a new one. But with the dean’s gift of a replica of John Radcliffe’s gold-headed cane, the school now has another tradition.

“ ‘After my first Yale Commencement as dean last year, I realized that we were the only school within the university not to have a standard to carry,’ the dean explains. So he presented to the school his own gold-headed cane, a gift from his chief residents when he left Toronto General Hospital. This cane was first carried May 23 at the Yale University Commencement. …

“The original cane was carried by John Radcliffe, an outstanding British physician. A year before he died in 1714, Dr. Radcliffe passed the cane on as a token of friendship to Dr. Richard Mead, a rising physician. The tradition of passing the cane continued until 1823, when the widow of Dr. Matthew Baillie presented the cane to the College of Physicians in London.”