Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-12-27


used. With the liquid is mixed lit
tie plaster of paris, to distend the ar
teries, that their course may be more
readily traced.
But the dissecting-room in the fonrth
story is not the most gastlv place
Down in the cellar there are four taOks
each about sixty by four feet, and five
feet deep. In these the bodies are pick
led," as the local phrase goes. Human
bodies a.e literally packed in these re-
cepsacle, heads alternating with the
feet, and over all is poured strong So
luton of saltpetre. A reporter visited
this place yesterday. The liquid sur
face of the vat glistened in the dim
light, giving no hint of what it con-
cealed
"Are there any in there?" was
asked.
Look" said the man of the scalpel ;
and barring his arm, he plunged it into
the brine, and drew slowly into the
light a mans arm. He waved the
flabby hand in the air, as two eyes rose
with stony glare to the light, and
then let it fall back with a splash,
which echoed feebly again the side of
the vat
"How many do you keep here?"
"Oh, we pickle q dozen in vat.
There may be thirty in he"e sometimes.
We don't think anything of this. No,
l can't tell how many we use ia year.
You might as well ask how many
shoes 8 man made. Bodies are just
like any article of commerce. Some
times they're scarce and sometimes
they're plenty"
The law of the State is that all un-
claimed bodies are to be diyided among
medical schools for dissection. In
Philadelphia this division is made pro
rata, according to the number of
students each school has. The Jeffer-
son College has about $50 students,
the medical department of the Uni
versity about $50, the Hahnemann
College about 100 and the Women's
College about 100 more. Thus there
are 1900 students to be provided with
Subjects Not more than half of
them are dissecting in any one year.
But bodies are needed not only for
practical anatomy, but for illustrating
surgical operations, and body which
has been used for this latter purpose is
usually too mangled to be of use for
dissection.
Tue unclaimed bodies used in the
medical colleges here come mostly from
the almshouse. Other legitimate
sources are from the coroner, the house
of correction and occasionally the peni-
tentiary. Tue poor and friendless,
when death approaches, know well the
fate awaiting their mortal frame. Most
OF them dread it; few regard it with
apathy. But the dread of being dis
sected is as prevalent among this class
as is any bugaboo among children, and
would not be lessened could they know
toe hard GOODNESS with which those ac-
customed TO the dreadful trade will
haoGle tneic bodies Their notion of
their fare is al indefni one of being cut
to shreds they know little of the
rough handling, hauling, picking, dis
purchase and sale, which
awaits their inert remaius. 1t is this
utter indifference TO all feeling of what
this flesh and bone has once been which
most keenly thrills one who is brought
into even superficial knowledge of the
secrets of the dissecting room. Death
and the grave, with all the ceremony
of q decent burial, are solemnly i'm
pressive, but the actual sight of bodies,
bartered snd cut, and treated as mere
Subjects" without a sign of feeling,
makes the flesh of the living creep.