Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-07-16
LIVING BODIES SOLD,
Surgeons Pay Cash to Secure Inter-
cstinG Cases After Death.

Surgeons Pay Cash to Secure Inter-
csting Cases After Death.
From the New York Recorder.
For reasons which can readily be appre-
cfated. doctors and the heads Of medical
institutions do not care to go into parti:u-
lars regarding the purchase of living bodies,
and yet. as a matter of fact 1t is custom
airy to pay cash in return for a bill of sale
en- the human body, to be delivered to the
doctor or to the medical institution after
the death of the seller.
Any persons who are compelled by fate
to go through life with a mnlformation of
body or limb may. II they choose realize
or their misfortune. and there are on rec
ord wills Of persons deceased who have left
their bodies to various institutions for dis
section.
There are many cases of such ante
mortem sales. one of the most notable be-
Ing that of a man known as John. who
has sold his head and trunk to the surgeons
connected with a well-known New York
hospital. John. so far as records go. has
no other name: he has peculiar growth On
the side of his head. which. while not a
particularly pleasing sight. from a medi :al
standpoint is most Interesting.
The man came to the hospital as char
ity patient a number of years ago, and II
is said that an arrangement was made be-
tween John and the doctors whereby he
was to have home In the hospital as long
that after death his body should go to the
surgeons table.
Another case was that of Allen Martin
and his young wife. For some reason
known only to thems elves, they wished to
sell their bodies to the Central Medica
College of St. Joseph Mo-, but the offer
refused for the reason that both man
and WIFE were in good health and perfectly
formed. and there was every prospect OF
their OUTLYING the doctors to whom they
wished to make the sale.
A medical college in this city has among
its records and papers a bill of sale for a
womans head. The woman is alive today
and should her name be mentioned Ii would
be recognized by hundreds of persons. She
is gifted with marveou5ly tenacious
memory. and the doctors are curious to
know just what popularity her brain will
show. This cannot be learned during heI
life. but she, being willing to advance the
cause of science. has sold her head to the
institution for the nominal sum of $50. In
her will she has left instructions that her
body shall be decapftated. and. while her
trunk and limbs shall be buried in the or
binary way. the head and brain shall &C
to the surgeons for dissection.
In all the German hospitals every patient
who enters does so with the knowledge
that if he or she dies in the institution the
body is by law destined for the dissectina
table. Custom. which familiarizes all
things. has overcome all sense Of repug-
nance in the matter and the charity patient
gives no second thought to the final dispo
sition of his body.
In French hospitals the same custom pre-
walls, and any peculiar malformatioN of the
body in a deceased patient Ia at once sub
jected to the surgeons knife. Attempts
have been made to pass q similar law ir
England and in this country, but the pub
lie sentiment has thus far overruled the
demands OF the anatomists. and with few
exceptions medical colleges are obliged t.
look elsewhere than charity hospitals fol
subjects for the dissecting table.