The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1892-06-03
YARNS spun BY DOCTORS
Sights in the Dissecting Room OF
a Medical College.
How Students Are Armed and Dressed
When Cutting Up a Cadaver-A Negroes
Unexpected Return to Life-A
Physicians Quaint Souvenir.
Especial Chicago letter.


PROFESSIONALLY the most interesting
room in medical college is the dissec-
ton hall where the young sawbones
nutilate the remains of their deceased
fellow citizens Anyone afflicted with
weak stomach or sympathetic heart
has no business to enter this room, as
the sight of score or more young fell
lows working away at the odoriferous
remnants of what was once a man or
woman is not calculated to act as an ap-
petizer or restore ones faith in the beau
tiful doctrines of universal brotherhood.
And yet the disgusting operations per
formed by these ambitious youngsters
is necessity. The teaching of anat-
omy from charts is well enough as far
as it goes, but unfortunately it does not
go far enough to give the medical stu
dent an exact idea of the mysteries Of
the human form, and its marvelo,ds1(
intricate construction. Nothing viii
do that but practical course of dissec-
ton under a competent teacher.
When young men conclude to become
physicians and surgeons they are not as
callous as they will be a few years
later. The professor of anatomy at one
Of the principal medical colleges of this
:ity is authority for the statement that
fully seven-eighths of the new students
are actually sick after taking their
FIRST lesson in the dissecting room.
This assertion was supplemented by a
famous surgeon who admitted that
when he was given his first job at cut
ting up human arm he tainted away
and did not regain consciousness for
two hours. The same man now per-
forms the most delicate operations with
a sang froid which has won for him the
applause of the medical profession Of
two continents. Familiarity breeds
contempt in such things just as it does
In our intercourse with those we meet
daily, and it has been my misfortune to
meet doctors who could not look upon a
person who happened to be slightly mis-.
formed without desire to secure inn.
mediate possession of the cadaver.
In a large city like Chicago the medi.
cal colleges do not experience much
trouble in obtaining a fair supply Of
bodies. Most Of the colleges are To-
Gated in the vicinity of the county hos
pital and the morgue. Suicides and
dead criminals are turned over to the
tender mercies of the college authorities,
provided the bodies are not claimed by
relations within a reasonable time, and
paupers who have died in the hospital
without expressing a positive aversion
to being cut to pieces share the same
fate.
If the corpses are in good condition
they are taken to the dissecting rooms
of the hospitals, where they are placed
on wooden slabs erected in much the
same way as the berths in a dime lodg.
ing house. Should the stock of cadav-
ers be more extensive than absolute ne
cessity requires, the corpses are placed
in picking watts for future demonstra.
tons. The preparation of the bodies
for dissection is extremely simple.
They have injected into them" said
an instructor, "a solution of arsenic and
afterward a solution of water in which
have been dissolved plaster of paris and
vermillion red with arsenic. This is
used for injection into the arteries. For
injection into the veins a solution Of
prussian blue takes the place of the YER
million. When the body is placed upon
the operating table, the carotid arteries
and the jugular vein are opened and the
fluids already described are injected
After the injection the student can
trace the minutest vein or artery, as the
coloring substances employed show