Comments on my academic profile

To review:
I graduated from the U. of Manitoba in 1949 with a B.Sc. Honours  degree in biology(5 year course). I took all the courses that the Faculty of Science offered in both the Botany and Zoology departments. In Botany I recall the special courses offered in Taxonomy from Prof. Lowe. He had a requirement that we had to not only collect, but mount, and name the genus and species of the specimens of some 40 Manitoba flora. Dr. W. Leach who was head of the department, had written a book with Stiles on Photosynthesis. Part of his courses evolve setting up the equipment outlined in the book and demonstrate how photosynthesis works as well as measure the gases (Oxygen) produced.
Although Buller had passed away a couple of years before I took my training. we had the opportunity to see and browse through his massive publications. I recall reading one of the experiments he did in which he actually measured the force of expulsion of spores from the basidia of mushrooms. In the department there was also the rare collection of fossils slides in which the plants had been sliced  and mounted on 4x4 inch glass slides enabling us to visualize the microscopic structure of the plants.  It is my understanding that this fossil collection and the apparatus used to demonstrate photosynthesis have long since disappeared from the department, a trend which occurred with many of the zoological species like shells in the Zoology department. Dr. Leach also had a cottage at Caddy Lake and he brought to the botany department mosses  liverworts  and other plant species for us to classify.
While on the topic of museums I should also mention that in the department of Pathology at the Manitoba medical school where I later received an MD degree, Dr. William Boyd  had set up a unique collection of various human pathological specimens, mounted, and preserved in formalin. Accompanying each specimen was a detailed account of the clinical history of the patient from which the specimen was collected. Indeed if one read Dr. W. Boyd's book on human pathology you would find most of these pathological specimens in it. Unfortunately the medical department under the leadership of Dr. Wyatt decided to shift the emphasis from medical (clinical) pathology to experimental pathology and felt there was no need for this excellent teaching tool for the students.
Returning to Ft. Garry campus and my first degree, I should mention about the teachings of 3 of the professors in the Dept of Zoology, namely Wardle, McLoud and Hay- I hope I spelled their names correctly. Wardle was professor and head of the department. Like Willie Leach who had a unique British accent, and spoke of the "vascular bundle" Wardle also had his unique way of delivering lectures- rather forcibly. But I especially remember his slide collection which we as graduate students had the privilege to view. These were specially mounted microscopic slides which were ringed with sealant resembling gold to give them permanency. They were of insects as well as  animal species. Both Wardle and McLoud also gave us special lectures in parasitology. - we learned  about the life cycle of tapeworms, malaria, and other human parasites. The third professor, namely Hay was the guru for naming species in the animal kingdom especially the invertebrates. Species in the different phyla-especially the different conchs starfishes etc were kept in large glass containers.We had to know the names of all of them- both invertebrate and vertebrate to pass his courses. To my knowledge- all these  Zoological museum specimens together with those in the botany department as well as those  in  the pathology department of the U. of Manitoba were all discarded. In retrospect it was indeed a rare honour having the opportunity to get such a broad knowledge in these various fields of Biology especially when you add to this exposure  the 4 extra units in Microbiology which I took with this honours degree. But this was just the beginning
To complete my academia I was able to get employment in the agricultural field in Edmonton, were over a 3 year period I took all the undergraduate and graduate courses offered in biochemistry at the U. of Alberta Medical College graduating with a M.Sc. in 1952. Since I was employed with the Canadian Department of Agriculture in Plant Pathology, I soon made plans to do postgraduate training in Plant Pathology at the U. of Toronto and in 1955 I successfully graduated with a doctorate. I was now a qualified plant doctor. A year later I returned to U. of Manitoba and began my training as a medical doctor. In 1960 I obtained my M.D.  and after successfully completing a rotating internship at the St.Boniface General Hospital I became qualified to practice as a medical doctor.-
A unique achievement.- both a qualified plant doctor and medical doctor- I guess the only missing degree would be a veterinary one.