The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-16

sickening to their Impractical stom-
achs, but not one of the three would
have mentioned IL for the world. When
a student i'm his shirt sleeves and with
a long white apron tucked up to his
chin came i'm and deposited towels,
sheets and a large bowl of water on
stand near the dissecting table their
hearts began TO palpitate with an in
tensity that almost shook them out of
their seats. Their faces were not less
white than the marble slab of the table
and they exchanged CHASTITY smiles i'm
a sickly effort TO keep up their courage.
AS the room began to fill with medical
students their spirits began to revive
slightly. They even took an interest i'm
the actions of the demonstration who
came In and began to sort a collection
of misunderstanding knives in a careless
manner
And then a door opened at the farther
end of the room. They caught glimpse
of several men carrying a something
on a stretcher covered with a long
sheet. This was the last straw. Three
young men with very sheepish- looking
faces were gathered on the pavement
in front of the college a few moments
later. Just what they said to each
other is not recorded, nor would the
above brief facts had not a young med
ical student related them at his board
ing-house a few days ago. He even
mentioned names, but out of regard for
the young mems feelings their names
are withheld. 1t depends upon how you
look at IL and whether you are subject
to any idosyncracies. Some people have
queer notions about a dissecting- room.
Some people even think the human
body is too sacred a thing to be cut up.
Yet the law compels the steward of the
infirmary to distribute the unclaimed
bodies Of dead paupers among the diff
ferent medical colleges. like an army
commissary distributes rations.
There is no fun I'm cutting up a hui
man body. as any demonstration of an
atomy or college student who is COM
PEELED to do the act will tell you. Take
Western Reserve university, for in
stance. The young man who enters its
medical department cannot receive a
diploma until he is able to cut up a
human body in the most approved sci
entific manner. They have been doing
this thing for years and years, and
some people say Why do not they
study the results of these Investigations
instead of going on cutting thousands
upon thousands of more people? This
cannot be done for several reasons In
the first place there is no teacher like
personal experience. Secondly, no two
human systems are alike"
"A surgeon must learn and then cut /;
not recklessly stick in his knife and
then learn" remarked a professor at
Western Reserve the other day. PEG
pie might well ask" he continued, why
| student of chemistry has to go
through a routine of laboratory work
before he can be a chemist.
You would not want any self-educa-
| ted chemist to prepare medicine for
YOU any more than you would want an
| unskilled surgeon to amputate your
foot OF leg. If amputation were neces-
sary. Practical experience cannot be
| learned by reading or by looking al
| charts or models. Even for such a
| simple operation as lancing an abscess
| a doctor must know what nerves and
what blood vessels are i'm the region OF
that abscess and just how they are sit
uated. A surgeon who knew no anat-
| omy except from books and charts
would be more dangerous TO a commu-
| nifty than an epidemic of smallpox. Sc
medical colleges must go on employing
| demonstrators Of anatomy OF the high
est order. and medical students must e
| on dissecting"
The modern dissecting room is a
| clean. light. and airy place and the
medical student goes about his work
with the thought OF business in his
MIND I'm the same manner the true art
| list studies his model posing in the al