The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-26
IN A D|SSECT|NC ROOM,
Visit to One of the Greatest Ana
tomical Schools in the
World.
Shocking Is the Only Word That
Adequately Conveys the First
Impression. ...
What a Body Costs and How 1t IL Oi-
vided Up-Stock of Corpses
ON Hand.

The following account of a conversation
with a doctor in the dissecting room of the
Edinburgh Medical school, reprinted from
the Glasgow Mail, may be of interest:
This way" said my %cicerone Gone of the
brilliant students of last year, and a man
with a passion for pathological studiss).
He led the way up a broad flight of steps.
swung open a couple Of doors and without
further ceremony ushered ME into the dis
secting room. The first glimpse was de-
cidedly shocking. That is about the only
word which adequately conveys the imprss-
sion one receives on entering. There was a
CORY, not to say a CHASTITY, look about the
place. A long, wide room, we'll lighted
and we'll ventilated (for the odor was really
not SO bad), with rows of blood stained
benches and human carcassss or limbs
upon them; at every bench r. young man
absorbed with a pair of forceps or a scalpsl,
q hum of conversation, broken by an occa-
slonal music-hall Tilt and a roar OF laugh
ter-such did the dissecting room
appear at first sight. Our entrance
was not Immediately recognized, but
so soon as We stepped in among the benches
a human hand Cor something like it, came
whizzing from the farther end of the room
and made a maybe on my friends hat-only
the urbanity of student life. We proceeded,
and 1t needed but another glance to show
that each man, or set of men, was ~investi-
eating 4 particular section of the human
organism.
You are now standing said the doctor,
"in what is allowed to be one of the greatest,
If not the greatest, anatomical schools in the
world. Do you see that dark fellow in the
corner, with the gold and diamond rings on
his fingers? That is an Indian prince. He is
on the cartilages of the joints. These three
men in front of him are all Beers. They are
supposed to be investigating the system of
the muscles. One of them split a mans nose
in the Waverly Market the other night"
"Was the investigating-?" Precisely
interrupted the Doctor. HE wanted to
make a practical examination of the lonci-
tudinal section of the nasal fossae, and he
narrowly escaped a month in the Cation.
But there is a man of different typs-he with
his head in the cavity of that trunk.
That is a New Zealander. He is working
for honors, He rsvels in viscera.' The
individual referred to withdrew his head,
gave his mustaohios a mischievous twiri
with his blood wet fingers, and winked
comicaily to the doctor. "You seem to
have all the nationalitiss represented?'
THAT is 10. They are here from the four
winds of heaven, and every year they are
scattered to the four winds. Some of them
work hard IN this room-many Of them
fool away their time. If a man has any
enthusiasm for the profession which he
has adopted it will come out here. What
the laboratory il to the chemist the dis
secting room is to the med" docs the
med pay for his experimental" "Yes, in
more ways than one. He pays. first of all,
6issscts must be maid for. The rate varies