St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-12-02

w. ~ telling of the horrors of
M ~ tTM dissecting room, of
1sAz, nes ~ parents finding the
S S8 cody of a favorite son
SGSHVkY or daughter under the
embyro surgeons knife?
Of tue students going crazy from
fright; and thousand other things? Ii
YOU have, you have probably smiled
Slightly to yourself. and thought whata
vivid imagination the writer of the
article must have had. That is prob
ably what you would have thought had
you never been in adissecting room and
seen from ten to twenty young men
cutting at human stiff" and crack
ing jokes as some peculiar formation
was found in the body of the poor devil
lying on the slab. But if you had been
through such place your ideas might
have been changed, and perhaps you
would have remarked: This article
does not paint matters half as bad as
they really are"
is located on the corner of Ninth ave-
nue. south and Sixth street. and there
is rule enforced there to the effect
at no person, not physician or sur
geOn, or student at the college shall be
admitted to the dissecting room. Were
this rule abolished, the room would be
full of neutrality-suspicious. people all the
time, and the students would be sadly
bothered in their work. | disguised my
self as a surgeon few evenings, ago by
a device known only to few, and paid
a visit to the hospital college. There
was no light visible in the lower rooms,
but the front door was unlocked, and in
l walked. Four flights of stairs were
climbed and then found myself fac
ing a ground glass door, over which was
the numbet II, in big black letters.
From within the room came the sound
of voices and the tread of feet. A faint
smell of tobacco smoke came to me from
over the transom, and as ! stood there
| heard the sound of a knife being sharp
ened. Pushing open the door, stepped
into the room, and beheld-what?
The room was occupied by some fif-
teen young men, all in their shirt
sleeves and wearing huge aprons. In
their right hands they held sharp dis
secting knives, while in the left hands
were small pinchers. There were SIX
or seven long. narrow tables IN the
room, and on each table was CHASTITY
something. A closer inspection showed
these something's to be human bodies.
or rather. what were once human
bodies. They were in all stages OF mu-
tilation, and to one unused to such
sights presented a sickeniDg scene.
The room was filled with peculiar
Odor, which cannot be described, but
which
WHEN ONCE SMELLED
will never be forgotten. For moment
nv limbs trembled, and mist seemed
to pass before my eyes. A low, sar-
castle laugh by my side recalled to my
mind where | was, and in moment l
was myself again, determined to see
and hear all that was to be seen and
heard.
s'There's fine specimen" remarked
a young man at the first table, as he
brought the leg of human body, with
a quantity of flesh and all the muscles
and tendons still clinging to it, from a
room to the left and laid it on the table
as carefully as mother would lay her
child down. EYES," he continued,
''that's a good spec imen," and the
student patted it lovingly. Then he
went to work with knife and small
pair of pinchers, and pulled and tugged
away at the muscles and cords, refer
ring occasionally to huge medical
work which contained large picture OF
a human leg with the flesh removed.
The toes of the foot were slightly pressed
together. as though while living the
owner had worn very tight shoes, and
resembled to some extent the SOuse or
picked pigs feet we see in the market
every day. AT the next table was a body
stretched at full length, with the arms
extended upon a sort of cross. Two
young men were working at the feet,
and two students each had hand.
which they cut and twisted, allthe time
cracking jokes and discussing the best
plan of getting at certain muscles and
bones. The body was dark brown or
reddish in color, but had
NO DIsAGREEABLE DOOR.
The cavity where once the heart.
liver, lungs and other organs reposed,
was empty, and looked like some horri-
BILE cave. From the throat and face the
skin and flesh had all been cut away.
leaving the bones and cords exposed.
1t was horrible sight, yet the students
sat or stood around the object. smoking
their pipes, cutting and tearing and re-
ferring now and then to their big med
ical books.
Around table little further down
the room stood three women, all wear
ing big aprons which covered them from
their necks to their feet. From their
smiling faces no one would have guessed
that before them lay the body of a
woman all ready for the dissecting
knives, which the three ladies held in
their hands. Three or four eases of
knives and punchers lay upon the table
and occasionally one of the lady stu
dents took up knife and critically eX-
amined it's edge. After standing near
the subject for few moments the cloth
covering the lower part of the body was
removed, and the work OF dissection be-
gan. The professor in charge kindly
drew his knife down the body from the
breast bone to the pelvic bond, and
drawing aside the skin and flesh and
fastening it aside by small hooks, eX-
posed to view the lungs, liver, intes-
tines and other things too numerous to
mention. BY an accidental knife cut a
lot of horrible gas was liberated. The
smell was simply awful. One of the
ladies stepped back and gasped for
breath.
Twill you kindly blow some cigar
smoke in my face?" she asked, turning
to me.
complied with the lady's somewhat
peculiar request, and after l had done
so watched Ter return to the body and
note the process of dissection with the
utmost compOSure.
Isn't her liver trifie out of place,
professor?" asked one of the ladies, a
demure little thing with light hair. 1t
seemed strange to see these, any Of
them fit to preside over any house in