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University Daily Kansan Tuesday, May 25,1965
Impending Final Week Brings Struggle, Fear, Hope, Acid Test
By Rosalie Jenkins
The days seem a bit different on the Hill when it arrives.
"It, with all its awesome power, is final week at KU!
Chancellor W. Clarke Wescoe las week described the purpose of a final examination as "a time to summarize one's information and bring together one's thinking on the entire course of study."
or study. After World War II, a six-day period of two-hour examinations was instituted for the purpose of summarizing the student's knowledge at the end of a semester.
BEFORE THE WAR, students faced three-hour finals in their three and five hour credit courses. Two and three hour courses had two hour finals.
Tom Yoe, director of the KU news bureau, was asked if three-hour finals bothered the students since he, himself, was a KU student when they were in effect.
"I've been out 26 years this month and I don't recall that the finals were too burdensome, because the most we could have was two on one day," Yoe commented. "It was what we were used to, so it didn't bother us."
Bringing the three-hour final back was considered by the University Senate last year, when it asked James K. Hitt, registrar, and his staff to draw up alternative proposals.
HITT SAID the Senate decided not to bring three-hour finals back because the changes in time would have involved too many problems.
"You have only so much time," Hitt explained. "The decision is what do you want to use the time for.
"If we had longer examinations we would have to have either shorter vacations, or shorter going-to-class time, or even exams at night or on Sundays," Hitt stated.
"Two hour exams seem to represent the best workable compromise available to all the faculty," he said. "I think they are something that we'll have with us for a long time because I doubt if anybody will come up with a compromise to keep the University functioning efficiently."
"There was a rumor that the way a history professor graded his notebooks and tests was to weigh them on a scale," Yoe related. "I imagine he read part of them though."
YOE ALSO recalled some of the characteristics of his own final days when students would see how much they could write on the assumption that if they wrote enough, nobody would read it.
Book check-outs each day have increased tremendously at Watson Library, Mrs. Gail Reber, a staff member, said.
"THE DAILY circulation has gone up from the average of 150 books to about 1,200.
The campus police department was also asked if they encounter more student pranks as students try to blow off steam during the final week. E. W. Fenstemaker, a traffic and security officer, said the campus seems to quiet down during this time.
KU students have varied ideas about final week.
● Carol Thomas, Wichita junior,
said: "I get up at 5 a.m. on the first day of finals and watch the sun come up. I always watch the sun come up—it's good luck. This year, my date and I are going to go up in a plane early Saturday and I'm going to study for my German test for an hour up there. Then, I'm going to take my 7:30 German final."
- Hubert Hess, Kansas City, Mo.
freshman, said, "I'm an advocate of the cram-before-the-final session. To me finals have always been just another test. You win some and you lose some. I just try to break even."
- Letha Schwiesow, Shawnee Mission senior, said, "I plan to rent a row boat at Lone Star, row out in the middle of the lake and read and review for my tests. This way I can study and still enjoy the sun and water."
Identifies Remains—
KU Professor Helps KBI
By Bob Curtright
The science of identifying human remains which are seemingly beyond recognition due to decapitation or decay is a major project for William E. Bass, professor of anthropology.
Prof. Bass, professional consultant for the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI), has been called upon many times to examine remains unearthed during construction work or bodies of victims in suspected criminal cases in order to establish identity.
"I average a call about once every one and a half months." Prof. Bass explained, "but during the spring the number seems to increase.
"Most times the KBI is interested only in the age, sex, and race of the individual and how long he has been dead," Bass said.
Prof. Bass said identification can be made in two minutes or in two weeks, depending on the condition of the body. He also said conclusions, based mainly on physiological averages, are often subjective in the final analysis.
... William M. Bass
Prof. Bass exemplified his work through several examples of past cases.
In his most recent case, about four weeks ago, the KBI sent him the skeletal remains of a young murder victim who had been found in a wooden box resembling a suitcase near Leavenworth.
From this beginning, Prof. Bass concluded that the child was female, Negroid, 20 to 24 months old and had been in constant poor health.
"Age was based on dental eruptions and length of the long bones."
he said "Deciduous or baby teeth had not yet completely erupted." He added that these teeth normally are present in a child between the eighteenth and the twenty-fourth month.
"The long bones suggested that the child was about 20 months old," he continued, "but an X-ray examination showed lines of arrested growth (Harris lines) on all the long bones suggesting severe illness several times in the child's short life."
He added that these Harris lines indicate that the age could be slightly higher than the age indicated by only the bone length.
"The race is not clear cut, but I believe it to be basically a Negro infant because of skull and hair characteristics." Prof. Bass said. He added that the hair was not completely black—more of a brown—indicating the possibility of mixed racial characteristics.
"There were no pelvic bones to examine to determine the sex." Bass said. He explained that most of the bones in a young child are cartilage.
From these remains and a few scraps of clothing, Prof. Bass pieced together a description of the victim. He described the person as male, 20 to 30 years old, and possibly an American Indian.
A teenager, whose body was found in a field in January, was another subject for which Bass helped determine the cause of death.
Prof. Bass also noted several fractures of the legs that occurred two to four months prior to death.
Prof. Bass testified at a coroner's hearing that he believed the boy died from a rattlesnake bite. He based his conclusion on the facts that the boy had removed one of his shoes and one of his socks before diving and that rattlesnakes were prevalent in the area.
Prof. Bass told of other cases he had helped identify during the past few years. Last year in Marion, a body was found burned beyond recognition in a boxcar.
"The sex could be determined from observation," Prof. Bass said. He added that the age and race were subjective guesses based on examination of the teeth.
He explained that the body showed no signs of violence. The police had declared the case a mystery.
Prof. Bass stressed that criminal cases were not the only phase of his work in identification. He mentioned several instances where construction
workers had unearthed bones of ancient men and had called him in to identify them.
One typical example occurred in North Kansas City.
More than 200 years ago a band of Indians who were camped in the willows and cottonwoods along the Missouri River lost four of their tribe to either drowning or disease. They buried them a distance from the river and the city grew up around the burial site. The bodies remained undiscovered until a recent construction crew attempted to excavate a basement in that spot.
Prof. Bass was called into examine the four skeletons. He decided from the skull that one skeleton, a man between 40 and 48, had stood 5 feet $11 \frac{1}{2}$ inches and was right-handed.
From examination of the teeth of the remaining skulls. Prof. Bass concluded that two of them were children about five years old and one was an infant who had died shortly after birth. Bass added that all were possibly victims of an epidemic during the 1690's.
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Hood Dies
afraid to cut the skin to be grafted. Prof. Hood took over and cut the calibrated skin graft. The operation was a success and in 1942 Prof. Hood was granted a patent on the Dermatome, Prof. Palmerlee said.
Jayhawk Fun Fairway S. Hwy. 59 by KLWN Rd.
Open daily from 6:00 p.m.
10:30 p.m.
USING THE Dermatome, doctors can perform operations regarded as impossible before the invention. The instrument will cut sheets of skin of uniform thickness and of any size or shape within its 4 by 8 inch capacity. The thickness of the graft may be varied from five thousandths of an inch to as much as thirty-five thousandths, depending upon the thickness of the patients skin and other factors.
(Continued from page 1)
In 1955 Hood was awarded the Holley Medal from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. He won the award for inventing
the dermatome, a skin-grafting machine, making possible surgical treatment severe burns and other denuding injuries. The Holley Medal is presented annually to a single recipient who by some engineering genius accomplishes a great and timely benefit to the public.
PROF. HOOD was one of the last surviving members of the 12 founders of Alpha Tau Omega social fraternity here.
Surviving are one daughter and three sons: Mrs. Catherine Hood Sears of Palo Alto, Calif.; Manley J. Hood, Los Gatos, Calif.; Henry Hood Rochester, N.Y., and Dr. Thomas Robin Hood of New York City. Martha Manlye Hood died Jan. 25. 1963.
Funeral arrangements for Prof. Hood will not be completed until his family arrives n Lawrence today.
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