The National Register.
London, England, 1816-06-24 00:00:00

VIOLATION OF THE DE.III.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

Stn,—FROM the tone of the letter signed J. W. in vine
l'aper of the Y,l instant, professing to he a reply to the one I
ti i.l presionsly addressed to you. on the subject of the Viola.
iion of the 1)eall, i jielvs the writer is of the ;
anti front the flippant aid Milts nil kind of st) le, in which he
deigns to notice our :trettments, would stein to possess infinitely
more of 7..al titan judgment. To speak the truth. there is so
little of any thing like an apology tor, much less a justification
of, the practice of digging up the dead in his ail.' epistle, that
I might well suffer it to pass unnoticed ; and only that there is
an evident view on his part to misrepresent the purport id' my
letter, en rte d with some of the grossest absurdities I ever
read, which indispensably call for merited expliMlre,
Inver kit J. W. and his genneiniWy ilerotre to that fife the
Piddle, in its impartial judgment, 'Nay consign then, to. It
seems I have given erect nuance by using certain warm ex-
pressions applied to the Csent practise of dissection. I grant
I have used strong IdG2llage ; but
not J. W. know., that
•there is such a ft cling as limit as 111(111:11iiiiiiii, and which, if
allowed, I would ask hi.u, slaty and Ulle.111(liti as he is, %hes
liter any thing in nattier is more likely to call forth sorb ex-
prissions than the violation of our consecrated burial places
I do, lioweve,, address myself to those who have pions feel
int; 'to hypocrites, and the tribe, I ills') tin making an appeal.
Throughout his letter there is an evident personal tar ness, in

my mind wholly unaccountable, unless I may imagine that the
appearance of my initials establishes the painful recognition
•of one kkowa to him, and srlur ha. 111, 14IT occasion dealt
out defeat : i such a reeollection haunts him, lam truly sorry I
for it will prove impossible for me to profit by a discussion
continued on his part in a such a vengeful mood.
J. W. will, I hope, e sense me wired I say that his episode of
the history ()Novotny is quite out of place. Neither roil nor
I, Sir, or his Readers, required such a tedious exposit ; nor
have I said a wail in impeachment of the propriety ofjadirions
anatomical practice: the question between J. W. and me, as
he has chosen to take it up, is this : I deny the noel ssity of dis-
torbing the dead ; and further, reprehend the practice as wan-
ton and brutal, es himical to moral feeling, and at deadly hos-
tility with the dictates of time religion, and so subversive of
pious delicary and refinement, conseqnently brutalizing, that
no plea of necessity set up for it can compensate for the serious
itOiry sustained by religion and morality through its citation'.
once. His letter would insinuate, to meet him on his own
ground, that there is an imperious necessity for it; but, alas!
where are the proofs? Are there as subjects for dissection sat e
those who are savagely dra.ced from tbcirlast earthily habita-
tions? And does he mean seriously to say that the practice is
confined to one in ten thousand? If he floes, the world
will hmeh at him in the one ease for his ignorant credulity,
and dc: pile him in the other for his disregard of truth. I do
not wish to be harsh on such a feeble effort in defence of that
which is indefensible ; but, I must say, that he has used his pen
with the same unfeeling dexterity, as lie would his surgical
knife, when hacking, the flesh from the bones of a subject for
dissect for Slimly there never nas a poor letter so cut and
mangled Is that of your humble servant's. I am fonnd fault
with for running to antiquity for errry thins; and yet J. W.
he fore the breath of his,reprehension was exhausted, must
drag up a long list of venerated names from the earliest pe-
riods, to sanction the violation of the tomb : this is wretched
inconsistency. As to his remark, that he " never enters a
cathedral, or house appropriated to the dead, without taking
off his hat, with the most profontul and reverential awe, with
mute veneration, &e. for the inhabitants of the silent tomb," it
is the veriest methodistical jargon ever uttered ; true cant ;
pore Chesterfieldian hypocrisy; for not use of these same ve-
nerated dead won he spare from the grass contamination of
the dissecting Imel, if his resurrection agents could safely con-
vey them to the spurting room for his juvenile ourgical opera-
tors to revel wrer. Away vs ith such miserable whining; such
rank duplicity. IfJ. IV. is a nom and a Clirktian, as he pro-
fesses to be,' et him attune better proofs in support of his
pretensions than the se he has fornished us with. Ilia I wish to
know whether any thing can justify the practice of theft? Will
lie meet this? Why, Sir, what we are speaking oh; is designated

„ ....
iitea'ilitr of dead bodies; and the offenders are' liable to the
vetigeance of the arm of the law. Then to be stare we have
sicklied sensibility, and narrowed views of limitanity,” ap.
plied to such as AIN silt I thank my God, that even this is the
case ; as a sensibility, thotteli not finite healthy, must certainly
be Inter than toil deprivation of feeling; and a narrowed view
of humanity will doubtless be esteemed preferable to the ab-
sence of rei !Inman sympathy. We have :..4.4C astrology very
mmeremonionsly introduced, for what sui!ak e purpose I can.
not divine, as there never was a question of comparison started
by me ; Mt even in this the thing is so clumsily done, that the
very men he quotes as the parents of anatomy, were those who
cultivated a most consummate knowledge of', and belief in,
.the truths of astrology. The first on his long list of ancient
*Ames, Hippocrates, has wrote on the importance of the obser-
vation of critical days to patients, as governed by planetary
motion and index. In the name of common sense let us have
no more of thus harlequinade, this saying a great deal and yet
easing nothinz.
al. we pursue sdence, Sir, let ns pursue it legitimately, and by
all prayer incon% compatible with the cultivation of
moral tre.ling ; for, as to j' necessity oftliecase, it may as well
be said to he expedient to once into a compact with devils, its
Order to compass a knowledge of i',he world of spirits, as to as-
sert that it is essential to anatomical practice to profane the
sane Sit, of the grave. J. W.'s letter, displaying as it does a to.
tal whitener on his part, of all that can express religious vent..
Cation and feeling, is a sad, but notable proof of tile lamenta-
ble rousequences of this unchristian and inhonian practice. As
to Cie scurrility with Vi 114'11 I am charged, I disclaim any' thing
like a wish to speak contemptuously of any profession ; but I
repeat again, that I brow of tio language strong enough in the
way of reprehension, to express the abhorrence with which I
view the violation of the dead. Doubtless, there are men in
this profe‘sion whom I respect ; there arc others also whom I
do not hesitate to say I feel every thing but esteem for ; and as
to mixing in their society, I am free to say I have, but must add,
from all that I have seen anti heard, notwithstanding their ex.
tenor polish, and apparent equanimity, I has I. known too m:in
entirely heartless, absorbed in the contemplation of the moat
sordid ptirseit of rain, end besides infected with atheistical
netlons ; .‘ltould J. W. prove angry at this declaration, let it be
renisnibered, ke ittlS extorted it from int.. Iliad no wish. our
old 1 speak of the professim, either as au object of part eyrie
or ceosare ; much less dill I insiuuate any thing against the
per nit of aaatoutical knowledge.
Had a!so, that my quotation from the Taunton Courit r has
a•ed this testy opponent of untie ; but, lay in 2 akitle for
th.• moment d.t: an'iquity of the tale, sorely J. W. has d
i• previvg it a joke; dries he mean to say the story is an intro.
eve:. though it should be twenty years since it was first
ineatniated 7 it so, let us have the pt‘..ds ut the ;