The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1878-12-27
STUDY OF SURGERY.

tuv0fs u populous and busy. In the
Immediate vicinity are Bellevue Hospit-
al, the University Medical College, and
the Training School for Nurses, WITH 8
teeming population all esUund. From
the College or Hospital to he Morgue
is but q step, and Just back Of this latter,
with it, four inclined marble slabs be-
hind glass partition and CHASTITY array
of photographs Of the unknown dead,
there nay be seen supported on piles,
at the rivers edge, other buildings, low.
shabby frame structures. where dead
bodies are awaiting transportation or
final disposition. Occasionally the
senses detect odors of doubtful des-
cription, chloride of lime predominat-
ing. The surrounding paths are well
worn, and when the Medical Schools
are not in session there IL Q constant
movement of young men, singiy or in
couples, some dressed in black, others
in gray or brown. They are delighted
with q 'splendid subject" dead or alive.
In the Office of the Warden, close by,
the visitor viii find Mr.. O'Rourker&'
his assistant, Mr.. fogarty, who have
charge of a ponderous s'Register, some
two feet square, lying on the desk, and
which, though opened for the reception
of names only four years ago-August
%, l874-already contains . record Of
BETWEEN Is, 600 AND 10000
dead persons who have passed through
the charnel house for interment. A full
description of each is taken, particu-
larly of the unknown dead, whose pho
tograph is taken and whose personal
efects'or othermeans of Identification
are carefully preserved. Clothing is
retained one year and every facility
given for the recovery of bodies.
"Shall 1 cut his head off?'' asked q
young doctor while we were taking
these notes.
Mr.. Fogarty explained that the SUBJ
ject had Just died from disease and they
were taking an autopsy.
"what shall do with Mrs: Rileya"
is the next similar interruption.
"Oh," says Fogarty, clay her cut. :"
Thus the grim procession moves on,
day and night, the average of dead
bodies tson haadn at a time being ''ten
or fifteen, (" as remarked by the assistant
in charge. "You see,' said he, ''five
to six thousand dead persons 60 through
here every year, coming, as they do.
from all the hospitals in the city, where
the deceased are without friends, being
sent here for public burial, and we re-
ceive them from every part of the coun-
try"
The law declares that unknown bodies
shall be buried as unknown" Nor
can the bodies of convicts be disposed
of for dissection, "only thoee who are
too poor to be buried and have no
friends" These latter furnish "materi-
al" according to professional vernacu-
lar, for the chartered medical schools of
New York, and are apportioned among
the various applicants through the Dis
tributing Committee of the colleges. An
others are taken to Potter's Field, some
fourteen miles distant, at the mouth of
Long Island Sound, and within two or
three miles of Fort Schuyler.
"Then there must be something like
. scramble for MATERIAL" said the
questioner. "Do you always have
enough to 20 ROUNDUP
ooh no, if we had double the quanti-
ty it would all be wanted, but the Dis
tributing Committee see that there is
fair play"
"Don't the rivers about the city fur
nish you with q good deal?"
"Pshaw! That's good for nothing;
it's too much advanced in decomposi--
ton. Besides, few bodies are found in
the rivers in cold weather, because gas
don't generate in them. You find bodies
drowned in winter don't turn up"
ONE OF THE PHYSICIANS
explained that by the process of en-
lming-iniecting arsenic, red lead,
and plaster of Paris into the carotid and
femoral arteries-bodies are saved from
putrefaction and are preserved indefi.
nitely. The dissecting-rooms are open
only from October until May. He init
mated that IS is the ordinary cost of q
body shipped for delivery anywhere.
The only cost for local use is the charge
for carriage. "In the country" said
he, "they are put in q pickling-vat. !"
Students and young practitioners here
in New York often club together when
they are qualifying themselves in sur
gerry, supplying themselves with mate
rial at joint expense and each taking
such portion as he may require" To
dispose of the disjecta membra brings
into requisition the street ash-barrel,
thus giving rise to occasional :" horrid
discoveries by gamins and rag-pick-
ers. In like manner the attempt tosun-
dry any. portions of the human frame
by exposing the same on the roofs Of
buildings leads not unfrequently to
revelations of "profound mysteries E"
and supposed damnable crimes"
THE EXTENT OF DEALINGS
in material for dissection may be judy
ed of from the fact that in New York
we have something like 1,50Q students
all told attending the College of Physi-
clans and Surgeons (medical depart
ment of Columbia College,, the Uni
versity and Eclectic schools, besides
two others for women. OF ths alio-
pathic alone there are about LOO. In
all not far from 500 will graduate this
year.
The prominence gained by New York
within the last few years compared with
Philadelphia, as resort for medical in
is owing in large degree to
the facilities for practice in surgery.
The hospitals particularly afford an
arena for the disciple of Esculapius
rarely equalled in this respect.
From the above it viii be seen that
the recent statements of DR.. Grow, who
claimed 10 have been associated with
DR.. Christian in the resurrection bust
ness, that he was prepared to furnish