New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1878-10-02

upon personal affection, the other upon
that respect that is q social right. Society
does its part when it places the friendless
and unclaimed dead in q pine coffin and
decently inters them in the Potter's field,
but such q disposal of the, dead is very FAR
from fulfilling the mournful desire Of be-
reaved personal affection. the discovery
at Cleveland violated this feeling Of per-
sonal affection. That there is no agita-
ton over the notorious fact that the same
vat had frequently held other bodies is
attributable to the circumstance that not
the personal but the social aspect of
treatment of the dead presents itself
The time will never come when any one
Of rs will be willing to see our own dead
removed from our midst to the dissecting
room, no matter what the need of science
may be, or how reserently their bodies
may be treated there. And it ought never
to come, for it would blunt the hottest
sensibilities of our nature, and shatter the
bond that holds us in the circle of affec-
ton. But the time came long since when
common sense told us that it was no out
rage upon the dead body to lay it upon
the dissecting table for the inspection of
health giving and life-saving science, in
stead OF placing it in the gTound to ''rot
itself in ease" And the reason the law
does not say this with sufficient safeguard
for the feelings of living friends, is be-
cause common sense has not yet fully
conquered traditional superstition.
We have it from the Bible that when we
die and are buried in the usual fashion we
must lie "where the worm dieth not, and
that even the whited sepulchers that cover
us, though appearing beautiful outward,
are within full of dead mems bones. The
beautiful Juliet. preparing to await in the
tomb the coming of her lover, could
think of it only as the place ''where bloody
1ybdH, yet but green in earth, lies fester-
ing ia bis shroad," and where her fore
fathers joints were playthings for the
death, but Byron, viewing it, remembered
that it is only "before decays effacing
fingers have swept the lines where beauty
fingers" And in the night thoughts that
haunted the mind of Young death was 1.-THE
knell, the shroud, the mattock and the
grave, the deep, damp vault, the darkness
and the worm" Milton conjured up
death, before his sightless gaze, and as he
looked he saw that death grinned hor-
rible deathly SMILE" When King Rich
ard started from his distempered dream
he trembled as he recalled the ''sights of
ugly death" within his oyes and the Chou
sand men that fishes knawed upon" and
the unvalued jewels at the bottom of the
sea that clay in dead mems skulls" And
the tale Of life, how ''from hour to hour
we ripe and ripe, and then from hour to
hour we rot and rot" we all know has its
full elimination in death without DIVA
ton from the latter progress. We know,
too, that this dissolution of death is one
of the elements of life, for doth not the
melancholy philosopher remind us that
"a man may fish with the worm that hath
eat Of Q king; and eat of the fish that hath
fed on the Worm2" Nor does the worm
choose only such high-seasoned food, for
''your fat king and your lean beggar"
must both be served, and as for all Of us,
1--WE fat ourselves for maggots."
These are not pleasing views of death,
but they are realistic, and they teach us
that the grave is not such place of placid
repose as to make the preserving vat and
dissecting table horribly repulsive places.
We can calmly think of the noble dust of
Alexander stopping a bung-hole, or even
that Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to
clay, might stop hole to keep the wind
away" and when we consider, we find
perhaps less indignity to the bodies of the
noble Alexander and the imperial Caesar
in placing them in the vat or on the table,
their dust and clay filling a place in
science rather than ignobly filing bung-
holes.
If the law accommodated itself to rea-
son, and not to superstitious prejudice,
there would be no repetition of this un-
happy occurrence at Cleveland. As the
matter now stands, society says that medi-
cal science must advance, and must be
fully communicated to its students. Sci
ence says it can not do its part without
subjects for dissection, and society says,
Then steal them, with proper regard for |
which you steal" These two Cleveland
cases are merely mistakes or accidents.
That is the only fair way to regard them.
In the hurry of the customary stealing,
he persons charged with that part of |
modern medical teaching got hold Of the |
wrong bodies. The agitation is not over |
he stealing, the circumstance Of the vat, |
u the dissecting table, for these are all |
amiliar circumstances, bat over the |
srieVous accident of taking bodies of de- |
ceased persons whose surviving friends are |
shocked at the occurrence.
The simple remedy is for the law to say |
hat unclaimed bodies that are now buried |
n the Potters' Field may be delivered to |
he medical schools for purposes Of scien-
ihc post mortsm examination. There is |
lothing heartless in that-nothing more
leartless than in carrying such bodies to |
he feasts of the worms in q pine coffin |
md rumbling wagon, instead Of bear |
ng them to the grave in silver-mounted |
,asket in decorated hearse, with black |
lorses, wedding plumes, and q long line !
IF carriages, funeral wreaths, and all the |
,ther trappings Of costly mourning. -
Courier. Journal
Edmonia Lewis, the colored sculptures,
las CLEOPATRA Dying" colossal work,