The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-26
AND NOTION DEPARTMENT MOST C0MPE Etc THE CITY,

according to the supply Of bodies. l have
known a leg to cost half a guinea, and ]
seen it a. low az half 4 brown. There is
often great scarcity of bodies, so much 90
that we have had to send to other town.
for them. Glasgow always refused to send
bodies, even although they had plenty.
Glasgow always said, Send us the stu
dents The usual prices paid for tho diff
fsrent parts of the body are: For a leg,
IS Cd; arm, Ia Cd; head and neck, Ia Sd;
toHia1' sl Is 60 So; h s1aoms vs., As oft Sa;
two students have to be put on to a single
limb. and, as each pays the same money for
the body, the total value of a dead body in
a dlssecting room may be So 6s cd. That
money goes to the demonstrators of
anatomy and to the man who injects a
solution of wax and mercury into the body.
Then the student sometimes-though l am
glad to say it does not often occur-pays
for his knowledge by a dissection wound.
A cut or a puncture is a serious thing, if
sustained while dissecting a subject in
which death has resulted trom erysipelas
or any similar Diseases
And h supplies your MATERIAL"
"Well, you know times are changed.
Come to this skeleton in the corner. This
10 the skeleton of an Irishman who, sixty
years ago, started a lodging house down in
the West Port. An old pensioner died in
his house n night, and, instead of
Oh1JlIk tAC DOuyy u0 II, 6t Lu0 IUhu WIG
was formerly inside these bones) sold it for
dissection to DR.. Knox. l believe the trans
action was an accident; but, having dis
covered that he had struck lie" no at once
set up az a wholesale and retail dead body
merchant to the doctors.
THAT, sir, il the skeleton of William
Burke, partner of the firm of Burke d Hare.
10 what base uses may we not oome,' apos-
trophized the Doctor. you see, Burke
was hoist on his own petard, We dissected
him in tho end. Thore used to DO a tradi-
ton in this room that Burke's jaws moved
every tim a dead body was brought in.
That, l think. is on a par with the story Of
the bronzs lion wagping his tail. Once,
however. the skeleton did create q laugh.
An Irish student, who ought to hayo been
studying the system Of nerves, spent a fore
noon manipulating Burke's joints. In the
afternoon he brought a friend to see the
dlssecting room, and, having carefully at
traeted general attention, hs placed his
frlend's back against Burke's skeleton,
when, drawing n cord, the bony arms of the
resurisctlonist closed round the bswildsred
stranger whose prodicamont was not re-
l1eved by the loud outlaws that rose from
every quarter of the room." THAT, surely,
was a practical test to the nervous syst.m?'
'Ierhats he meant 1t for a test. The Joke is
still handed down. But you wanted to
know where We got our present su pplies.
Ii you come up stairs | will show you what
we have or hand" He went along through
corridors and up stairs and finally opened
the door of a dipgy apartment where wore
stored several cofans-sll, as he said, CON
tanning bodies of unclaimed persons who
had died in the public institutions, auch as
the poor houses. etc. The vessels OF the
bodies had received an a%ntiseptic injection,
which, while preserving the body. would,
as assured mo, remove all danger to the
dissectors. And what do you do with the
debris of the diaseoting room?" / ventured
to ask as was coming away. 1T is buried,
of course" replied the doctor. The clean.
ers gather up the fragments and put them
in a coffin. I don't say the cleaners can
distinguish whose dissected arm this is or
whose skull that ia. / rather suspect that
the coffin goes out with the heterogeneous
fragments OF half a dozen unclaimed NOR
tails, who will never be fixed together til
the last syllable of recorded time.''