Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1853-01-22
MORBID CURIOSITY.

Under this head we find ii the Baltimore Anne
rcan of yesterday the following article, expressing
opinions and sensations which, in the main, we
doubt not that ninetenths of our readers will unite
with us in approving
AUTOPSY OF DANIEL Observation-Disclosures has its pains
well pleasures 1t is true that many Of the former
must be anticipated by public during his life for
unfortunately they befa his memory rather than his
joyed fame AS he dies Senate houses, town halls
and forums resound with grieving euoges. The press
takes up the mournful strain but somewhat modfes it.
Passages Of balanced by passages Of narrative and
prurent appetite is gorged with every morsel of spicy
scandal fancifu anecdote that be recoeced and
revamped for the sudden occasion The world is alert to
know how the hero statesman talked, walked, ate,
slept drank dreamed spent composed contracted debt
paid his obligations and performed every function Of ami
NAL intellectual e One writer depicts his morals
another busies himself with his manners third discusses
his eloquence; fourth his logic fifth his politics;
sixth his habits; seventh his religion.
This disgusting fashion of making merchandise out OF
great memory is therefore well calculated to gbbet
reputation terror rather than to magnify it properly
for the worlds example There benay, there ought
to beno objection to ripe and candid criticism of dis
tngushed mans services 1t is just also that the public
heart should relieve itself Of grief when such person
dies But good taste well good feeling should cha
racterze both criticism and our sorrow, and time
should always be allowed to chasten their just and
manent expression in our literature.
Theseremarks drawn from by reading Of the
hasy publications recently made about DANIEL WEBSTER,
and especially by account of his last illness, NTH
description Of the post-motem aRpearance issued in the
last number Of the American Journal Of Medical Sciences
It appears from this article that tha reputation of this
great is not only in danger from paragraphsts but
there few chances for his body the grave with
out medical mutiation. Like the child who broke oper
the instrument find the muscs secret the surgeon
ntrudes the noble brain and physical structure in
der to unveil the organization that prodiga
genius. The curiosity is false in in the
other Doctors may think us /" sentimental" and " un
scientific, yet profess to think that Death haows
whatever it touches "The dome Of thought-the palace
of the soul lis sacred temple where the oracle
dwet and its ancient presence consecrates whatever il
degned to nhabit. &c. too, with the frame and organs
through which that intellect made itself palpabe. Why
should those limbs those vscera, that head be touched
by the knife and the saw, to reveal for the qualification
of morbid curiosity the physiological secrets which, af
ALL mpart nothing but the size of organs the dis
ease that impeded their healthful functions ~
To gentlemen whose habitua acquaintance with the
mysteries of death renders them probably less susceptible
to the emotions have described suppose the
performing Mr. Websters autopsy had of the vulgar
attractions of ordinary dissection In their eyes may
have been gorifed by the notion that noble
sion to demonstrate the laws of science in usrious
subject and accordingly the medical appetite eager
pry into every of the mortal caske that
closed priceless gem To less instructed judy
ment however, all this in bad taste in its perform
ance and is still worse in its publication.
We do not wish to impede scientific researches but
oppose scientific curiosity Science has many other
of gaining the results In this the autopsy did
not serve to account satisfactorily for the OF
death Recapulating the points of interest in this
case" says the writer sit win be observed that the i'm
mediate of death hcmorrhage from the stomach
and bowels For this, no could be found in the
lesion of vessel it must therefore, be regarded
simple exhalaton dependant upon dsorganzaton Of
this fluid, indicated moreover by the almost entire alb
sence of coaguation." In other words clothe our
ignorance in clouds Of words which look technically wse
but impart nothing that did not know before the suf
ferer's death.
The dead belong the tomb and its sacred silence
What may be tolerated for the sake of science the
body of vile and executed malefactor shocks when
done on forms which, while living, approach
ed save with respect that sometimes to awe.
Great men sufficiently with their hUes; their
deaths should be exempt from violation for the benefit
Of posterity