Connecticut western news., 1878-11-20
"YOUR MOTHERS ARM.o

4
 NEARLY A CENTURY AGO .sHARcHNa
 THE COLUMBIA ooTLEaE MEDICAL.
 SCHOOL FOR DEAD BODIES. s-.:- K. !. ]. s.s:..z.s.
 The. removal of the body of A. T. Stewart recalls the Doctors, Riot, which, took place in Naw York city in the year l778s sa.P Previous to that year the system $f "Hody snatchingt had not prevailed
 10 any great extent. sThe graves of fegroesswere, indeed opened, and in a lumber of instances thesbodies interred therein were inthlessly dragged up, to
 Re used by medical students in the dis
 dectiRg rooms of their. colleges. But at
 that time, nobody thought much of the
 Hoor colored man, and so the practice
 continued During 17S7 and 17Ss, how.
 ever, the students seemed to have let the
 bodies of ftheiTee4eeea brethren rest, and
 instead of taking them they stole the re-
 mains of respectable white people, male
 and female, who had been buried in pfivate grave yards. many of them being interred in the old Trinity buying
 ground. Tho medical men of Columbia
 College were particularly rapaoious in
 this work of d desecration, but itewab done
 so skilfully that outside of ths-college authorities pfobably no one was aware of the traffic that was going on in human remains VDp ~ tt ] At last, ho9eveE VldsperE began Ao be bruited about in relation to the prac- tic les of the stt tdents, but so great was the faith of many citizens in the sacred nes ss which has always been attached to dead bodies that the stories would prob ably n ever have been believed but for very simple incident. It,seems that in the early part of May, a788, a:party of boys were playing in the rear of the Colunfbia O6llege Hospital, which was surrounded on almost every side by gravelled walks and green. swards. A student in the college, who was looking at the boys, called to one of them to climb up on 8 ladder that was leaning against the wall. When the boy did so the student took up from atable near by the stump of beautifully rounded arm, and dangling it in front of the youngster, said, in half joking manner, 4 Look at. your mothers arm, sonny" sand~sAen. i. closed the. window. The boy, whose mother had but recently been buried, was for moment filled with terror, but when he had recovered his presence of hind he immediately ran to where his father was working, which happened to be near by, and told him what the stu dent had said and what he had seen. The father set out for the grave of his deceased wife and had it opened. But the body was gone. Who could have taken it but the person who had so ruth lessly and remorselessly wounded the feelings of his son Almost choking with suppressed rage and indignation, the outraged husband gathered 8 crowd of .workmen together, and as they marched up to the medical college they rent the air with their soaths and imprecations. Cries of f Death to the body snatchers l'' and s' Out with the doctors l'-were min- gled with shouts of indignation and ap- prov al. The noise served to draw out the, authorities of the city but before any stop could be put to the proceedings of the mob, which seemed to be fairly boiling with rage, the college had been, reached and the contents of the ,disseet-s ing room carefully scanned The .fnd-@ ing of one or two apparently freshly-dug out bodies served to incense thesmobsbel. syond measure, and furious onslaught was. made on all the valuable collections contained in the college, At last, howl ever. Mayor Duane, Recorder Richard Varid k, Sheriff Boyd, Johh Jay, Boron, steuben, who was atSthaa time inithe clty, and number of citizens arrived at the scene qf the riot, ~ands through their entreaties ths mob wab dispersed SpcH of the studehts as had fallen into their hands wereplacedin jail for safekeeping This seemsa tosatisfy the rioters, and h6 more trouble was anticipated by the authorities. But all through the early part of the night and on thes following, morning groups of excited men were< to- be seen standing around the corners dis Iqaqssinng ths sisa.atiopt } g } $F's
 Later in the day few of the apparent leaders of the rioters proposed to examine he,eollege more thoroughly i This was eagerly acceded to, and the mob once more proceeded to the build ing, but their efforts could not discover more than had been found the previous evening. They ransacked the houses of the, physicians attached yto, the medical departmens of the coltege, but without finding anttliRgSst9 inerease the ,se1eite- ment. Altthefr| dhctio5ns ut this time denoted thorough organization, as they
 appointed committees to make examina-
 tions of particular buildings and receiv-
 ed their reports with every satisfaction.
 The, authorities of the State, and city were present, and the Governor, the
 Mayor and the Chancellor made suc- .cessive appeals to the feelings of the mob and urged it's dispersion. Some of the rioters were much Inpfessed by the iarguments used by the authorities, and left the scene of the riot, but the bolder spirits, seeing their power for mischief. Kept theremnant well inF hand and were deaf to all entreatiss. tTheilawless men prneeeded to the jail, in which were con- .fned.a number of the students of the college, and. despite the preserce of a body of military that had as last re- eource been called out hurled stonesl and oth er missiles at the authorities who
 were pf fesent. Baron Steuben and John