Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-06-07
The Dissecting Room.

sIantins surface covered with zinc. Sub
jects are provided by parties regularly
employed for that purpose-who, notwith-
standing the safety OF their trade, still
prefer TO make it the business of the night.
These subjects are brought from the island
which New York uses as the Potter's
criminals, and those unfortunate women
who form SO large class in city life.
They are conveyed into the reception
room, and each one injected with an auti-
septic, containing zine, mercury, or arsenic
mixed with plaster of Paris, and the
whole mixture colored to a tint of red.
The aorta is opened and the arteries fillei
in similar manner by means of large
and powerful syringe. After this prepar-
alton the body will resist decomposition
from two TO six weeks. AS soon as laid on
the table class of FIVE students attack the
subject, one assuming the head, and each
of the others working at one of the limbs.
In order TO assist in the tracing Of arteries
the latter are sometimes injected with
/ melted wax tinted with different colors,
2 thus bringing out their exquisite ramiica-
tions. We are aware that some may
consider this a repulsive employment, and
r yet there is great pleasure in pur-uing
ana. omical investigations. and all sense Of
t the horrible is lost in the value and impor-
4 tance of the study.
O With respects to the appearance Of the
v subjects. il may be promised that they are
V not st,iking illustrations of human beauty
i On the other hand they are generally the
II West, lowest, and most unfavorable speci-
\. men of the race. They are the victims
n Of famine or exhausting disease, or are
those who pined away in weary sentility
!. Occasionally some robust form still bears
ID evidence of life of crime, and the scowl
II of affect depravity yet fingers upon the
re- debased countenance. With these, how.
"A ever, are sometimes contrasted old ant
N young and delicate shapes, hich suggest,
"A the history Of early shame and a career d
I'd misery suddenly charging from the gaudy
!. saloons Of splendid vice to this charnel
- house Of science. On one occasion of thi.
1, kind the students were seen to cluster will
an looks Of deep compassion around one
j, whose life, just entering on blasted woman
:, hood, had been terminated by sudden
:, death. Her feet and hands were small
:, and white, her hair fell in curls about her
j neck, and in her features there fingered
the traces of former beauty. What was
!, her history? What a v.lnine could Lave
. Leen written Of life's battles, temptations
!, and miseries, if those lips could have told
Y their story. IT was spectacle which re-
called the sympathetic lines Of one of the
!, bards of SORROW;
= g Touch her not scornfuy,
Think of her mournfully,
Gently and hnmby,
% Not of the stains Of her,
An that remains of her
u Now Is pure womanlr.''
! The disseciing room Of an afternoon is
an interesting scene. A hundred young
. men may be seen, mostly clad in black
cotton gowns, sitting on high stool around
~ the slanting tables, and using forceps and
i scalpel as occasion may require, laying
'e bare the muscle, tracing arteries. or invest
igating nerves. A few meerschaums re-
ieve the heavy atmosphere by the flavor
{ of tobacco, and noisy hum fills the hall.
a occasionally breaking out into laughter as
% some joke enlivens the quiet pursuit of sci
. ence. One may be whistlng in low key,
e another humming snatch of familiar
! song. The opera may be criticized over
:, a decomposed arm, while the topic with
1t another will be the party he attended last
night. and the .boquet offered to some
beauty by hand that now, Ike Lear's,
9 smells of mortality Every little while
the various lecture bells are heard, and
$ there is a running in and out in obedience
It to this important summons. Visit the
e same spot at later hour, when darkness
+ and solitude invest with their solemn man
b tie. All is still. There is no one there
d but yourself and the dead. A dim gas
d burner throws ray sufficient TO show the
e nature and surroundings of the scene-or
n perhaps the moon shining through the
broad window, lights up the ghastly faces,
J that yet retain ihei. natural covering, Civ
ing still more fearful aspect to the half
denuded skulls that lie around. There is
then in this dissecting theatre much that is
b sad, and fearful, and revolving; but it also
: has a tinge of the romantic--perhaps it
!. might be added the poetic. In snch a
: place Edger A. Poe might have caught a
fresh respiration, and Hawthorne found a
: new idea TO work up in his wierd and
narrowing style.-New York Times
- Detective Baker saws he buried