The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1884-06-21
Bodies for Three Dollars Apiece.
From the New York Mail and Express.l
"rnhraa dnllara aniooo ~


"Three dollars apiece"
The above was in answer to ques-
ton asked an attendant at one of the
city medical colleges recently by a 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?"
From the Charity Hospital, Belle
vue-in fact, all the hospitals and the
morgue. The bodies that go 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 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 go
through the modus operandi of hun
dreds of everyday O ,erations 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
it not?"
"Oh, my, yes. They are thoroughly
prepared. Sometimes they are picked
in solution of saltpetre and water, and
sometimes they are injected with a
preparation of chloride of zinc or
arsenic. Students prefer an injected or
fresh subject to picked one gener-
ally. For my part l had rather have q
picked one. Working on zinc or
arsenite cadayer 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 large pile and kept
for 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 g
skeleton?'
"Oh, a skeleton brings more than the
cadaver tenfold. They range in price
from $40 to 5000. A complete disartic
ulated skeleton, that is, one where al
the 200 bones can be separated, if it ha
thirtytwo teeth intact, will bring 500
easily. An ordinary one, however, witt
all the bones separated except those O
; the head, can be had for the forme
price"
But, / should think the bones woul
get lost or mixed up by finging ther
into common pile"
$50 they do. But the correspondent
, bone is taken from some other body an
, used instead of the one that is lost
, When you see a skeleton, do not sur
pose lHat because every bone Is IN 1t
place all of them grew in the same body
1t is possible to represent as man
bodies in skeleton as there are bone
in the human frame. If man wants
; skeleton wherein all the bones shall b
of the same body, he must take
cadaver and cut away all the tissue an,
then sink 1t in perforated box at tn
bottom of running brook. Thi
hardens and whitens the bones an,
makes them capable of being easily al
ticulated. 1t takes long time, though
generally two wears"