The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-06-23
TESTING NoVIcES' NERVES.
CHASTITY FRANKS PLAYED By Med
ICAL STUDENTS.
Initiation Rites of Their Secret So
ciety-A Live Body in the Place of
Cadaver, While Blue Flames
shoot From n SkuII-ROws of Mock

n CadRver, While Blue Flames
shoot From n SkuII-ROws of Mock
ing skeletons.
From the Cincinnati Enquirer.
| New York.-An official inquiry into the
sudden retirement of a recently admitted
neophyte at the College of Physicians and
! Surgery has resulted in a revelation to the
authorities. For several years and on many
| occasions newcomers have abandoned their
studies in the same hasty manner. though
/ up to the present date a satisfactory ex-
PLANTATION has been wanting.
The fact that the runaway novices have
been made the prey of CHASTITY frolics in
/ dulged in by the more advanced students
has long been established. but while the
/ previous efforts of the college officials have
developed this suspected information no
clew could be affixed to the parties PERSON
ally perpetrating the pranks.
| Now. however, a secret organization
| among these advanced students has been
| discovered, and in consequence of this dis
! closure of its morbid object, the leaders Of
the movement. it is said, will be dismissed
| came to be divulged is not definitely known
but it is said that one of the conspirators
| broke faith.
The latest victim is a young Canadian
named William Shaw, who hailed from
/ Hamilton, ont. He was critically observed
| by his new associates, who eyed him sus-
piciously. and were not inclined to welcome
! him to their confidence. On the night of
Shaw's first work in the dissecting room
| he suddenly rushed down the several
| flights of stairs leading to the street, pass
| ing the doorman in a state of feverish ex-
| element. He had left his hat and coat, and
not once did he look behind. The next day
/ he Informed the college officials of his in
tention to return home. claiming i'll health
| as an excuse.
The officials. however. were not salts
| fed with his hasty resignation. The pro-
| fessors well knew the feelings of the stu
dents regarding nerve" among their com
panions and how they detest associates
who feared the gray walls of the dissect-
| ing room and its CHASTITY inmates when left
| there alone all night but il was great
surprise to them to discover a regularly
| organized conspiracy 10 put new arrivals
| through a regular nerve test
This secret and grOtesque organization
| according to the story of one OF the MEM
| bers, who since the discovery sees no rea-
son for keeping it's constitution and by
| feeling among the college boys regarding
the amount of nerve a good surgeon should
| possess. They conceived a dislike for
some of the newly admitted students. who
| trembled at the first sight of a corpse, and
were not at all congenial company.
1t was accordingly decided among the
| hardened workers that these young stu
| dents should be broken in to their felings
and like the armorer proves his sword, it
was concluded to temper them by strength
! ening their nerves" The class was reg
ularly organized in this conspiracy, all the
old members being oathbound to allegi-
ance.
The organization was given the name Of
| the "Order of Nerve Brothers," or, as il
was commonly called, 1.-The Nerve Broth
ers." Its scheduled purpose was to mi
tate the innocent arrival into the neces-
| sary rough life of practical medical stu
/ dents. 1t might be understood that to a
| greater or less extent the young man who
wishes to become anything at the dis
| secting table must have as much posses
sion of his nerves in handling the knife
as a woodchopper with his ak. No young
man could acquire this lasting nervous
| sensation.
At the first sight of the human dead
| however and here is where those students
| who had become so hardened have made
| their mistake in dealing with the newcom-
| ers. They forget their own introductions at
| the college: forgot how they acquired
| their scientific love or admiration for the
| abandoned remains of their fellow-men by
| long and close association with the cada-
! vers.
| At the meeting of conspira tors for the
| purpose of deciding upon the initiation"
| of the young Canadian one of the COM
| pany proposed that some of the older mem
| bers disrobe and change places with his
| subject on the night designated for first
! ,od inn hon no
would not be accompanied by the instruc-
| tor
| A volunteer was readily obtained and all
| was arranged 1t had been learned that
Shaw was to dissect the abdomen of male
| cadaver which he was to find on table g.,
of room No 3, in readiness for his study at
| II o. clock. AT that hour the volunteer had
| changed places with the cadaVer. Shaw en-
| tered nervously. With quickened step and
! feverish movement he approached table g..
The room was deserted. the students
| having purposely neglected their studies
| on this night so as not to interfere with the
| "initiation," knowing it would not work
| unless Shaw was alone in the room.
| one solitary gas Jet fickered over the
| Young Canadians subject, and in CHASTITY
detail the room had the aspect OF tomb.
| Shaw opened his little box of dissecting in
struments and took out q sharp skin seal
| pel which he placed between his fingers
| in readiness for the pressure of the first
| delicate incision. He turned up the gas
light, and quickly threw down the cloth
ing. completely covering his supposed sub
ject above the abdomen. To his horror,
! when about to touch the body he observed
the muscles of the abdomen rise and fan
| and was hinged 10 the floor for moment,
| and then, seeing the subject commence to
rise. he started frantically for the door.
Shaw looked back once before opening
the door and leaving the room. and seeing
the supposed dead man coming toward him
like a ghost holding phosphorescent skull
in one Of his hands which was extended up
ward from the uncanny form. This was
the story as told the professors by the
Young man himself, who cannot be pre-
| vailed upon to return to the college. but
| who was ready to believe he had been vic
| timized His initiation was a stronger
nerve test than was ever enacted before 1t
was however, an evidence that the initia-
tors were getting more and more morbid
| in their methods.
The other cases brought to light by the
Investigation are more mild, but none the
less ingenious and trying than that which
caused Shaw to abandon his studies. The
| mysterious explosion of the skull attached