The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1890-05-18
IN A DIssECTING ROOM.


der the Knife-She Receivers.
Paris Correspondence Chicago Inter Ocean.
When l commenced dissecting at the
hospitals l bad some difficulty in surmount-
ing the repugnance which the smell of a
corpse causes to every human being. But
1t took me still longer to overcome the
horror felt each time plunged my knife
into yet organized body, which, although
dead, looks so much like living one. In
time, however, l conquered this aversion,
and the interest awakened by science soon
deadened my softer feelings to the CHASTITY
details of the busipess.
One dull December morning on arriving
at the Hospital de le Pitie-where as an in
door student | was training for the medical
profession-I met one of the janitors, who
told me that certain patient, in whom
took considerable interest, had died during
the night and been placed in the amphithe-
alter.
1t was, l say, cold and dark morning.
| The courtyard was empty. | entered the
! dingy dissecting hall and drew near to the
table wherein the corpse lay oulstretched,
with every line exposed. The body was
| that Of a woman, as perfect a fashioned
woman as | had ever seen in flesh or mar
BILE. She was about 25 years OF age, with
| strongly-knit frame, and wealth of au-
| burn hair that fell about the slab in disor-
| der. The face was handsome and
serene. The hands and feet were delicate. I
noticed that the forefinger of the left hand
| was ptlcked and betrayed the hard-worked
| needlewoman. Poor, unfortunate girl;
neither mother nor sister had come forward
| to claim her mortal remains.
may here state that, during consulta-
| ton of the head doctors over her case,
han, OBJ ,lsx s,.., .
dents we're all present, l had become con-
vinced that an operation with the knife
might have saved her.
| The head doctors, however, thought other
| wise, and as | had no consulting voice in the
matter. no surgical operation was at
tempted. l impaired my doubts to the
students, who agreed that should get her
body, as wished to verify by post norton
how far out was in my inference that an
| operation on the living woman might have
been safely performed. The patient lin
| gered on for some time, so long in fact that
began to think she would get we'll again,
| aud | defrauded of an interesting patho-
| logical case.
So matters stood when the janitor gave
| me that morning the welcome intelligence
of her death. l say "welcomen because,
| however fiendish such an expression of
| sentiment may sound to unprofeSsional
| ears, bad grown downrig hit impatient to
verify my conjectures. Her ailment con-
sisted in loose, fatty tumor on the side of
the neck, which weighed over pound. 1
| got my truss, donned my black apron, and
| was soon ready. | determined to operate
as conscientiously on the dead as I should
have done on the live woman. Ny scalpels
and instruments were all well within reach
on the table. | raised an eyelid, but there
was no trace of life in those dull, lusterlesj
orbs. The jaws were fast, and tho mem
bers rigid in death.
inserted the probe and piled the knife
with the utmost care, nipping the arteries
as they were disclosed until a dozen or more
held the principal vessels of the Leck. After
working a half hour or so the oblation was
complete. just at that moIneIt the prose-
cutor, always all early bird, entered the
hall and walked up to the table, where |
was busy. He bent over the corpse and
scrutinized with great attention the cavity
in the neck. Suddenly, as he gazed into
the wound he started back as if he had
received galvanic shock looked at him
in aStonishment. He once more bent down,
distended to it's utmost the gaping hole ia
the neck. and exclaimed:
why, good God man, the woman is
alive. Her carotid beats. Here, janitor,
lend a hand to take this woman UPSTAIRS
l in turn peeped into the wound, and sure
enough, a full view of the main vessel in
the neck, which conveys the blood from
the aorta to the head could be had inside,
and it throbbed with slow, irregular
motion.
The woman was in trance. She was at
once put into warm bed, restoratives
were applied, and her neck was properly
bandaged. Her life, however, was for a
time III great danger; but she eventually re-
covered and left the hospital cured.
lns ances like this, although of very rare
occurrence, do sometimes happen in the
dissecting rooms of the hospitals but have
never heard Of any such case at the Amphi-
theater of Clamart, where pupils prosecute
their anatomical lessons. Here, although
the subjects are unclaimed waits from all
the Paris hospitals, no pathological disssct-
ing takes place.