Omaha daily bee., 1883-02-21
TRADE IN C0RPSES.
How the D iiSGCting Rooms are
Supp led with Subjects.
Five Hundred Bodies Used
Yearly by the Medical
Colleges.
The Market Value OF a Good Sub
Iieot-scenes in the Dissect-
ing Room.

The record of burial permits kept
by the board Of health contains some
curious facts. Sensitive persons would
be shocked to read In the column
headed 'PIsce Of Burial after. the
names of several men and women the
entry. "St. Louis Medical College,"
or some similar legend. Yet those
who are posted know that every year
at least five hundred untortunates
fnd their last resting place on the dis.
secting table, where they are cut Into
fragments for the benefit Of science.
In sober reality there i, no reason to
object to the practice. 1t is, perhaps,
tho best use which can be made of
what the students call the ''stiffs. "
The law allows 1t and the science Of
medicine ia benefited. But there Is q
feeling of reverence connected with
death which most people can not
shake off. Very few can contemplate
THIS TRADE IN coRPsEs
without a shudder, or read without a
strange feeling the entry that some
poor unfortunate from the Female
Hospital, whose age shows that she
had scarcely blossomed into woman
hood, had no other place of interment
save the surgeons table. A Post
Dispatch reporter, In conversation
with q gentleman connected with one
Of the colleges, learned q few facts
about the matter which are not gener-
ally known.
''There are colleges that / know at
which dissecting Is carried on every
night at present." said DIR. -.
"They are the S.. Louis Medical Col.
lege, corner of Seventh street and
Clark avenue; the Missouri Medical
College, Twenty.third and Morgan
streets; the College of Physicians and
Sur geons, Eleventh and North Mar
ket streets, the College of Medical
Pra~ ctitioners, No. 1926 Washington
avenue, the American Eclectric Col
lege, Eleventh street, between Olive
and Locust streets, and the Hahne.
mann Homeopathic College, on the
corner OF Tenth and Carr streets. This
st. Louis Electric College, DR.. Fields
institution, Twelfth street and Chris
ty avenue, wants bodies but cannot
get them. Then there may bs one OF
two schools Of midwifery, where one OIL
two 'stlfs' are used for the edifcatior
of lady pupils"
tA"And how many bodies are needed
for these placesW
ooh, I should say about 500 In thu
season. Let me see. Now, don't you
use my name, or you'll raise a horne
nest about my ears. / can figure
out In a minute. A body Is gwen t.
a quartet of students. Each elias
gets two subjects a year. There ar
about $50 students at the Missouri
medical college, 80 that 1t would TAX
ffty.fvo corpses to supply them TO
one round. That would make ITO TO
the session. On the same basis 20
can put down the ST. Louis college q
ninety.fiv bodies, the College of Ply
%sicians and Surgeons fifty, and all tn
others at from five to ten each. A
the largest estimate, / should SAY
sfter this calculation, that 400 bodie
would be more than enough to suppl
|: all that Is wanted"
= "And where are they to com
from2'
, "Oh, all from the public institv
tions. The law, you know, dire.t
that they should be given. and sae'
are"
SIS there no body snatcN !sag soinI
on2"
Honestly, J think not. Their,
may be some litt)G F'resurrecting
done at unguar d cemeteries, Tx,
Pioketts and &oe Hebrew buryins
ground, bu, al there Is it is on q very
! small soalS. There Is no necessity foI
: II, ss tissre was In former years Ernes'
Dcapke and others, you will remsm
i. laade quite a business of 1t until they
. were hauled up by the law. Undei
Z the statutes now the supply is larg'
enough to make
BODY %sNATCHINa
no object. Why, do you know tina
the deaths at the city hospital thi
year will average about two q day, AM
II the colleges got half Of them, 1
would be quite sufi ,ient. not count
ing the other institutions"
"Are any oorpses exported"
"NoT
"Nor brought into the cltyT"
I'M u Ill