Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-12-27
SELECT.
SECRETS UNEOLDED
OF the Dissectiug Room.

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 6.-What is
the treatment received by the once an
mated clay that legitimately or illeglt-
imately falls into the hands of the med
ical students
Passing down Medical street above
Tenth the other afternoon, reporter
saw a wagon piled with long pine box
es standing within door way on the
south side of the Jefferson Medical
College. The driver and an assistant
carried the boxes back one by one, and
presently brought them out again, evi-
dently much lighter than before The
boxes were from five to six feet long
and about square at the ends. Save
an occasional glance from the passing,
no one noticed the oppera.ion of uu-
loading aDd loading, so suggestive of
victims of almshouse life, and The wa3-
on drove away as unobstrusively rs it
came.
| Should anyone be curious as 10
what become of those long boxes he
could easily learn. "Wbefe is the dis
seeing roomY Z" was question read'-
ly answered at the college door. A
climb of four flight of stairs, turn to
the lett and closed door faced the re-
por,er. The thought of what is be-
lieyed that screen of death might deter
sensitive person, but there is no SEN
timent there. A couple of students
came up the stairs, their cigars alieht,
and with careless tread passed in. The
reporter followed them into large
room, well lighted from above and the
side AS he stepped through the door,
before the eye had taken 10 the details
of the scene, there passed in front OF
the door a student, stepping rom one
table to another. He wore a large
apron coming up close TO the chin, and
falling nearly to lis feel. 1t was COW
cred with dismal stains, some yellow,
some dull red-and all smeared and
blurred together, and as far as possi-
BILE removed in their look from the
bright scarlet drops which sprinkle the
snow. white texture of butchers
apron There is no blood here, for
blood flows from the living, not the
dead. The student who was envelop-
ed in this hideous apron hourished in
the air human arm which he had just
purchased, and which he was carry
ing to his table 10 dissect, but, save IN
shape, it did not look like an arm.
There was the curve of the biceps, but
it was wasted and thin; there was the
slanting outline of the forearm, but it
was gaunt and bony. The color was
not glistening white and pink; it was
dull ashen hue, inclining even to gray.
With q slap, the student swung his
arm upon the table anG fell to work.
By this time the eye had wand cred
over the room, drawn on by that
strange fascination which the horrible
always exerts. There were forty
tables. Over many of them students
" ere bending, busy with scalpels and
scissors. Over others brown cloths
were thrown, partly concealing the
Subjects" as the cadavefs are called.
Near by these lay a glistening aw,
hatchet and cbisel, for separating
bones. Over the edge of one table
hung what was once the neck, now
only spinal column, with depending
shreds of flesh. The skull lacked the
lower jaw, and the upper half as
sawed clear through. The Uranium,
thus opened was empty. The brains
had long before gone the way of all,
the skin and muscles which had once
covered, perhaps with beauty, the
face which is now a repulsive frame
work of bones and dry tendons. On
another table pelvis was seen, the
viscera protruding from the gaping
abdomen The flesh was turned away
from the hip bones, which stood out
in CHASTITY nakedness. By the side G
each dissector stood pail, into which
he threw from time to time the cellu-
lar tissue and other filmy, superfuous
substances which he had strapped from
the muscles, or arteries, or nerves
whose course he was tracing
"How much do you pay for the
privilege of working here 2" the re-
porter asked one of the students, who
was carefully turning back the skin
from an arm.
| ave pay ten dollars in the first
place to the demonstrator of anatomy,
DR. Forbes" he replied. "That is the
first fee. Then we pay dollar part.
A body is cut up into five parts, so
that it is sold for five dollars; but no
one has more than one part at a time.
The head is one part; the arms and
thorax are two more; and the legs and
the lower part of the trunk are two
more. When student finishes one
part he buys another, so that in time
he has dissected the whole body.
Though most of the bodies in a dis.
secting room have been without life for
some time, they are carefully kept from
decay Nevertheless, the secret is not
pleasant The bodies are preserved by
injecting chloride of zinc into the
arteries. This antiseptic penetrates
even to the fue capillaries, and pre-.
| aarypa tho tisauaa for lOnp time