PHOENIX OF PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINE: FRANKLIN CHAMBERS McLEAN MARSHALL R. URIST, M.D* On February 29, 1888, a prodigious infant emerged bald and brighteyed in Maroa, Illinois. His name was given by his physician father, William T., and physician grandfather, Chambers Argo McLean. Photographs and other records of his childhood provide no clue to his personality except to show that he came from a family of Scottish emigrants of very strong Presbyterian conviction. The child thrived and the unusual character of the boy developed in an environment of austerity and discipline mixed with love and kindness. Between father and son there was mutual respect and quiet understanding, but nothing to indicate the nature of the man to be. The only possible clue could have been found in the boy's appreciation of the poetry of the Bible, far beyond that of anyone in the family; his comprehension was like that of someone from an archaic Oriental culture. Strangely, after never missing a single Sunday in church for 16 years, he never again was to attend for all the rest of his adult life. Young McLean severed about every other cultural tie he had with Maroa when he arrived in June 1905, at the University of Chicago. He arrived without credentials of any kind, no high school diploma, not even a letter of recommendation. In "A Lover's Complaint," Shakespeare provides a fitting description of the lad at the time he appeared before the registrar: Small show of man was yet upon his chin; His phoenix down began but to appear . . . And nice affections wavering stood in doubt If best were as it was, or best without. [Lines 92-98] The university was only 13 years old in 1905 and had not even had time to approve a coat of arms. William Rainey Harper, the first president , was still in office (the opening ceremonies of the University of»Director, UCLA Bone Research Laboratory, 1000 Veteran Avenue, Los Angeles, California 90024. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Autumn 1975 I 23 Chicago occurred in the year ofthe World Columbian Exposition on the Midway Plaisance, 1893). By 1907, the Chicago that was destroyed by the great fire of 1871 was now rebuilt of brick and stone, clean and fine for the whole world to admire. Students rode on cable cars running from the South Side to Wabash Avenue in downtown Chicago. The first 2 years of college classes were held mostly in Ellis Hall. Not having graduated from an accredited high school, the lad from Maroa was summarily given a special entrance examination. Although it was his first experience with a written examination, the grade was 100 percent in every subject except Latin. He hired a tutor, made up the deficiency in 6 weeks, and was promptly admitted to the university. In his junior year, he was assigned to Anton J. Carlson to do original research and work in the Department of Physiology. He was graduated in 3 years with no grade less than an A with a bachelor's degree in December 1907, before his twentieth birthday. He worked as a teaching assistant under Carlson and overlapped college, graduate school, and medical school courses for the combined Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. He traveled back and forth for 3 years between the South Side and Rush Medical College on the West Side by cable car and elevated train, and in 1910 he was awarded both the Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. There were very few automobiles in Chicago in 1910. On Sundays, young McLean loved to sit on the Midway and watch an occasional automobile go by. Until he came to Chicago, he rode only in horse and buggy and saw no hard roads. His father was a country doctor, took him on remote farmhouse calls, and firmly instilled in him the idea ofbecoming not only a doctor but also a professor ofmedicine at the University of Chicago. Fifty years later, Franklin C. McLean made a gift ofhis father's Rush Medical College diploma to form a part of a permanent historical exhibit appearing now on the south wall ofthe Billings Hospital Library. Off the Nest From the day he was...