Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1884-06-18
Bodies for Three Dollars Apiece.

4Are0 collars aploCoI"
The above was in answer to q uues-
ton asked IN attendant at one of the
CITY medical colleges recently by q re-
porter: of the Mail and Express, con-
corning the price paid for dead bodies
used for scientific purposes.
Where do you get most of them p,
From the Charity Hospital, Belle
vue-in fact, all the hospitals and the
morgue. The bodies that 20 into the
medical schools represent the pauper
dead only, and the good their bodies do
for science is oftentimes the first and
only good use that they have been put
to since their BIRTH" :
How many bodies do you suppose
are used by the medical schools in this
city every year,"
Easily a thousand. OF course most
of them are used by the students for
dissection, but the professors also util-
,ize the cadaver for anatomical demon
stration. Didactic teaching is coming
to be more and more regarded as the
best method. Then again, many ca
daVers are used in the practical study
OF operative surgery. The students
practice on the dead body. They am
putate fingers, hands, arms and legs,
make resectiens. of bone, and 20
through the modus operandi of hun.
dreds of everyday operations in minor
surgery. They learn to appreciate the
surgical landmarks and familiarize
themselves with normal and abnormal
conditions Of the body"
But the cadaver is prepared in some
way before it is given to the student, is
itnot?"
ooh, my, yes. They: are thoroughly
prepared. Sometimes they are picked
in a solution Of saltpetre and water, and
sometimes they are injected with q
preparation of chloride of zinc or
arsenic. Students prefer an injected or
fresh subject to q picked one gener-
ally, For my part I had rather have a
picked one. Working on zinc or
arsenite cadaver makes ones fingers
sore."
"The students, of course, buy the
bodies from you at an advance on the
original price?"
"Not at all. No charge is made for
material for dissection. The college
furnishes it free. But some return is
from the bones. The scraps and bones
are gathered in a large pile and kept
for a man in Philadelphia, who pre-
pares and mounts skeletons for schools,
lodges and private individuals. He
comes to New York at regular intervals
and buys up all the human bones and
sends them to Philadelphia in barrels"
Does he get anything much for a
@Oh, q skeleton brings more than the
cadaver ten-fold. They range in price
from $40 to 5000. A complete disartic-
ulated skeleton, hat is, one where all
the 200 bones can be separated, if it has
thirty-two teeth intact, will bring 5000
easily. An. ordinary one, however, with
all the bones separated except those OF
the head, can be had for the former
price,"
~But, I should think the bones would
get lost or mixed up by finging them
into q common pile"
$50 they do. But the corresponding
bone is taken from some other bodyan
used instead of the one that is lost
When you skeleton, do not sup,
pose that because every bone is in it,
place all of them grew in the same body
1t is possible to represent as many
bodies in q skeleton as there are bones
in the human frame. If q man wants 8
skeleton wherein all the bones shall be
of the same body, he must take 8
cadaver and cut away all the tissue and
then sink it in a perforated box at thu
bottom of q running brook. Thii
hardeRs and whitens the bones and
makes them capable Of being easily ar.
ticulated. It takes . long time, though
generally two years."