Star.
London, England, 1829-07-17 00:00:00

I That in other countries the use of dead paupers for dissection
obtains, would be but a poor argument for its adoption here, unless
it could bet abowu that such a practice is fair and just, and the re-
sult of enlightened legislatiou. Whereas it will be found that this
II practice has been allowed to become established only by reason of
the supinenesa of the lower orders and their habitual subserviency
Ito the will of the rick and powerful, a state of society that cannot be
introduced into this country without creating much heartburning
cud &Slake, and which. moreover, except for the particular end
in view, is by no means desirable.
The fourth argument is our much dwelt upon, and one upon
which its entpluyers appear to pique themselves highly. Hut it is
sot so triumphant seat Sri: sight may be imagined. Granting it were
true, which by the way, may be disputed, that the poor are those
almost exclusively ezbutnated, is it net a very different thing to
leave a man to these miseries the want of property pathway and =-
avoidably inflicts, than to say to ham is a legislative capacity, "yen
are poor,therefnre y 4411 he degrarled?"Svery wretch knows that
11 he be SO straitand la circumstances that he canrot hey white
used he must hey hems; but bow swab' the bitterness of his
suss be iscreasod, if we were to say, " you are a pour that you
ors uovareby to eat 'Ai:" bread ; we condemn you to your present
hard fare." AU must yield to circumstances, but few, especially
to a free country, like to yield to commands--to ceounands, too,
that have Utile savour of that sympathy which every tan ought to
tool for his fellow, and moue of that which the et:parks orders in
this land so repeatedly profess.
At the same time I allow. provided it were shown to grounds
of morality oe religion, or on the score of jeitioe, or the good of
the thentry, that the rviseeetioa of tke rich would be Jokes-Wes, we
have a right m make the rule in question. For as we seise the
property piths risk to feed the poor, so by the same right we might
seise the dead bodies of the poor tofurnia surgery for the rich, if
the lames were euerly liable to perish fur want of medical aid,
which many dashikiss would do it there were co dissection. But
as no poor Mall who can get wog!, and hereby food, shall Frey on
his rich neighbour, so the risk neighbour haa co right so say to the
pour man, two of our children are dead ; give nie yours to have
dissented, hi order that their malady may be knew*, and the Ilves
of ourselves and the rest of our offspring probably saved front the
like death." He has so right to make this demand whilst he bath
a child deed, since, la junks, he should WE that; for if it be no
sacrifice of kolas to have a child disseried, why ash a favour ?
and if it be a sacrifice of feeling, who shall ask another to do that
which he skinks frame bisuelt T On this grouted, then, it is son-
Hwy to the principles of justice to condemn the pore to dissection,
stakes she risk were also used foe the same purpose.
- But, k will be said, all this argument is sags. It is oat pro-
paid to disseet people because they ate poor, but because they are
soclalmedi sad she risk are not easepted, cosily io point of fact they
always kappa be be shined. This brings us to the fifth propoal-
titm, aat no bitterest' arise to the feelings of the living, and the
dead feel nothing. But do Ike dying feel 'Botha'? Put a sass.
An old woman is a workbouw—perhaps once rich aod surrounded
by a family, and happy—these may, have died, and left hes alone;
In the world. She has re frittods--ohe feels her blame decaying.
and metered herself with the reflectioo that after death her body
will be exposed and dissected, and disketiou is, to her enfeebled
mad bigoted mind, the most horrible of purdahs:ems. Is there no
pang inuistod here? Lad say not the picture is overcharged or
extreme. y The majoilty oldie's dying in workboosos, thus de-
send, most be old people. In old people, in women especially,
it is that the prejudice against dissectien exists in Its fullest extent.
They have been brought tip never to dispute the propriety, the vir-
tue of this prejudice. They have sot bees, nor are now, assailable
by argsmeot; no march of intellect has broken in on them. They
do sot disapprove of dissostion, because they think it is subversive
of this cesemooy or that feeling of decency or morality—they can-
not noses on. it for a montesittbey are horrorsetriaken at the
very Wee. If any respect be due to the weaknesses of human
mature, to sash persons it should be laid; they should be the es.
eeptlo:s to the rule. rather elan the only class iacluded in it. Bet
Is will be said. this may le tree, but what can be dime? they Cu
;keened. they are ezbunsated. The question Is not whether they
will be dissected—for that wont be preveutads—hst is what way
they shall be dissected? Hut. I reply, they do not knew they
shall be disescled ; they have slick fears, like other persons. but
they hope to @mope. Hew if they kuew how many of their class
are ezbamated. hope would act en each individual as it acts on
every soldier in a battle, who goes on, never reflecting on the
chaocca that aro against bins, but trusting to be amongst the sated,
however few these are likely to be.

Bat then, again, it is argued that the peer are the only parties
who are likely no derive advantage from the better surgery Which
dissection will be instrumental ill producing. The rich, they say,
can oomniand eminence from those particular Individuals who enjoy
missive mermaids.' for dissection, or even front surgeons edit-
cued Assail. bet this is only true of the very rich. AU the
middling claws are excluded. Farmers, shopkeepers, mechanics,
artisans, the inhabitants of villages and 3111411 COMM. cannot com-
mand the services of the very Exst geniuses in the profession; and
therefore abet as well as, the paupers, must suffer from the want of
good surgical teaching es this country. ledeed, the grandees and
their friends are too nosterous not to require mere abundant supply
than they arelikely to obtain, if the acquisition of anatomy be con-
fined to particular histitetioes, or if it be banished the realm alto-
gether. AU are personally interested in the advancement Mummery
all ought, -therefore, to make some sacrifices for its promotion.
Benevolence, self-interest. the love of one's conntrt, religion de-
mand them sacrifices, sad some time or other they will be made.
The manifest injustice of this meafere might excuse nit for die-
missing it at once; but I have a few remarks to make on the last
reams that has been adduced in favour of the measure, namely, that
it does not interfere with Christian burial, became the bodies are
buried after dissection. This sounds very well, but is when clearly
examined, an iniposition. The body of a poor mau is brought to my
dissecting room, and there kft'; and after a certain time, I send a
coffin, glied wick something, and having the man's name and age on
it, to the churchyard. New, have I sent the map at all, or half of
hint and half a another? I may have taken away his bones for a
skeleton, perhaps—his four limbs for injected preparations, and his
head for a skull. I may have used him altogether, and idled the
coin with rubbish. In point of fact, I would not mind doing this,
became I think dissection a virtue. But is ie not a Mockery to allow
the minister of Goa to read over this the sacred and beautiful burial
service—to commit the remains of oar dearly-beloved brother" to
the earth, when there is not, perhaps, one bit that ever was pert of
our dearly-beloved brother, but in his stead saw-dust and stooge ? I
de sot mean to cant ; but either the burial service means some-
f Since writing this, I have learnt that a real case sit the kind
has been lately mentbsed In the Them

VI. Of all the plats Wien° widened, 000 e equal that of exits.
statism as it was formerly conducted. I. the golden dip fur ana-
tomy that are gone, when few bodies were used and the price was
low, there was no anoptatiou to foul play, since surgeons bought
may of those teem they knew: the public was asleep—the sexton
was bribed, sod the grave digger—the body was removed—the
grave appeared untouched—business was conducted comfortably
sod happily. It were long to tell how the avarice of resurrection-
ists, the conspethloo ibis gave rise to, sad. Kin more. the increased
demand for bodies, became the dire springs of a revolution in this
happy state. Stake kto say, it never can return. The church-
_warden and the winter may take of the watch—convenient men
may be appointed to guard the churchyards—the magistrates may
wink. It is all in vain t tbs people are awake to the business, and
the wants of the profession are increased to a pkch that the church-
yard cannot supply. There eau be no question, however, that the
system of exhumation is better than that of giving up the poor for
dissection. The anatondsts might combine and moo focus sack
regulations as would effectually prevent many of the evils at present
incident to this practice; but a better plan remains to be disclosed.
GRACCIICS then proposes his own distinct remedy: it
is in the shape of a legislative enactment, and is as follows :

In drawing up a bill for the regulation of this subject, I have
been guided by the following principles—to enact that which is
strictly just, showing ho favour or affection to any individual or
class of men—to look fa: forwards, so that my law shall be of use,
sot temporarily, but fur ever, not In this land only, but in all
others—to respect every feeling that is natural and proper, or from
the indulgence of which any moral amelloratioo cam possibly arise
—4,0 look not only to what Is conducive to the progress of science
in its present path, but to such expedients as may open to it a new
COMM
Without detaining you longer, I shall state, not exactly in its
legal teem, but io the briefest mode possible, the substance of what
I propose to enact.
Whereas, it Is expedient for the better preservation of the health
of the people of these realms that medicine and surgery be 'neon.
raged ; and whereas, it is established, by the testimony of the
learned of all nations, that these sciences can only be acquired or
improved by the constant dissection of dead human bodies, be It
elected--

1. That it shall not be lawful to inter in any vault, churchyard, or
other place of public sepulture. the body of any man or male child
dying in the United Kingdom, until the said body shall have been
opened by a physician, surgeon, or apothecary.
11. That this examination shall be made in the premises of the
aid physician, surgeon, or apothecary, or in any other place per-
fectly separate and distinct from the house the deceased died in, as
may be agreed tio betwixt the said physician and the friends of t►e
deceased.

5. That the relations of the deceased, or, if he have no rela-
tions, any person wishing to bury him, or, if no such person ap-
pear within two days after his death, the overseers of the parish
Wherein he died, shall have the following powers: Ist. They shall
dictate bow many and what persons. besides the physician, surgeon.
or apothecary who opens the body, shall be present during such
examination. ed. They shall 6x (whether they are pre-..ant or by
their deputies) peremptorily the limit beyond which incisions into
the body of the deceased shall nut be carried. 3d. They shall
appoint the day and the time of the day at which the examination
shall be made—always providing that longer than one fortnight
shall not 1/lapse between a mate/ death and the aforesaid examine-
don of his body.
4. That it shall be imperative ..n every surgeon to perform the
examination of a dead body, or cause the same t• be performed by
some other sargeon.within two days after receiving a written notice.

5. That every physician, surgeon, or apothecary that opens a
body shall endeavour to ascertain the cause of the deceased's death,
and shaU transmit to the minister of the parish wherein the de.
ceased is to be boried a certificate of the form osentiooed below
touching t►b mattes, and that he shall keep a copy of oath certifi-
cate by him, for transmission when required, either to his own
college, or such other place, or officer. as his ?Aajesty's Privy .
Council may direct.
6. That the eats of searchers be abolished.
7. Provided always that nothing herein seated shall be under.
stood to forbid the opening of the bodies of women and female
children, at the habitatloas in which they die, or at soy other places
Wherarato their frieoda may choosy to send them.

S. And, 43 order to pretest ambiguity io the inteepresation of
this Act, be it understood. that herein the word 0 physician" im-
plies any fellow candidate or licentiate of the colleges of physicians
in the United Kingdom ; that the word " eurgeon"implies any
menabsr of the colleges of surgeons; ..
and the term apothecary