The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1893-09-23
NOT DISSECTED BY STUDENTS

The body of Addie r. GiImour never
passed into the hands of medical students
for ths purpose Of dissection as affirmed
BIZ DR.. West that he delivered it to two of
them at their requ est. This development
in the case was un earthed yesterday after
noon, and serves to show that the state
ment of the doctor as to his disposition of
the body is untrue. All day yes terday this
theory of the tragedy was being worked
upon. and several prominent physicians
in the city visited the undertakers at San
Rafael, where the head now is, for the
purpose of ascertaining whether or not the
body had been prepared as is the univer-
sal Gu stom with medical students for dis
section. All those W no viewed it rendered
the same verdict. that the body had never
been handled by any medical college
students for dissection or by any person
familiar with medical science for that
purpose.
Among those who visited the under
takers yesterday and examined the head
was DR.. W. o. Wilcox. demonstrator of
anatomy at the California Medical Col
lege, and who in his official capacity has
charge of the dissecting-room of the col
lege. DIR. Wilcox succeeded DIR. West as
demOnstrator at the college when the for
mer vacated 10 1891, and consequently was
more interested in the case than an ordi-
nary physician. What also added to DIR.
WiIcox's interest was the rumors arising
from the statements OF DR.. West that he
had turned the body over TO medical stu
dents that the body had been cut up by
students in his college, and that in all
pro liability the work had been done in his
dissecting-room.
DR.. Wilcox was seen on his return from
San Rafael and did not hesitate in making
the statement that the work was not only
not done by students OF the California
Medical College, but that it was not cut
up by medical students at all. In his own
words his investigation is told as follows:
II went over 10 see the head more to
satisfy my own curiosity than anything
else. l cannot say anything other than
that the cutting up of that body was not
the work of medical students. In the frs
place. before a student would go to work
to dissect body he would inject solu-
zion into the heart. By doing this he would
send it into every blood vessel in the sys-
tenn, the tongue would be full of it. the
brain, throat, and in fact every portion of
the whole body. In this head that was
found in The netting no injection has been
made. Tile tongue was limp and not as it
would be If it contained the fluid. There is
no sign of the plaster paris fluid, which is
the one that Is used, in any portion Of it.
OF course l was not allowed to raise the
skull cap and examine the brain, but from
every indication apparent it contained not
a drop of the fluid. The muscles in the
H. \
one of the first things medical students
would do were they dissectiDg head. TO
sum matters all W. l am safe in saying
that the work was never done by medical
students. The head was not dissected, but
simply cut off. in my opinion, to prevent
| iden tification. The body has never been
in any medical college dissecting-room.
again, it is not necessary that any
medical student should resort to foul
| means to obtain a body. The city Is too
| full of them. and has been since July l.
| Only last Sunday refused an offer of two,
and hardly a week passes over without
| one or more being offered to the college,
| according to law. Any medical student
who would want body could get all he
wanted without drawing himself into any
criminal liability. The last subject used
at the college was during the first week in
August. 1t was a male, and since that
time we have not required any, although
time and again we have been solicited to
accept them
81 was of different turn of mind at
| FIRST thought that the head found was
the work of students, but since my exami-
nation am convinced that they had moth
| ing at all to do with it. the theory that L
have is that the head was cut off the body
ana a portion of the skin removed so as to
make Identification impossible. After this
the head with the rest Of the body was
| thrown in the bay. and in drifting around