Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-07-05
LIVING BODIES SOLD.
Surgeons Pay Cash to Secure Interesting
Cases After Death.

Cases After Death.
For reasons which can readily be APP
preciated doctors and the heads of medi-
cal institutions do not care to go into
particulars regarding the purchase of
living bodies, and yet as matter of
fact, it is customary to pay cash in re-
turn for a bill of sale on the human body,
to be delivered to the doctor or to the
medical institution after the death or the
seller, says the New York Recorder.
Any persons who are compelled by fate
to go through life with malformation
of body or limb, If they choose, realize on
their misfortune, and there are on record
wills of parties deceased who have left
their bodies to various institutions for
dissection.
There are many cases of such ante
mortem sales, one of the most notable
being that of a man known as John
who has sold his head and trunk to the
surgeons connected with we'll known
New York hospital. John, who, so far as
records go, has no other name, has a
peculiar growth on the side of his head,
which, while not particularly pleasing
sight from medical standpoint Is most
interesting.
The man came to the hospital as a
charity patient a number of years ago,
and it is said that an arrangement was
made between John and the doctors
whereby he was to have home in the
hospital as long as he lived, provided
that he was willing that after death MS
body should go to the surgeons table.
Another case was thar Of Allen Martin
and his young wife. For some reason
known only to themselve they wished to
sell their bodies to the Central Medical
college of st. Joseph, Mo-, but the offer
was refused, for the reason that both man
and wife were In good health and per-
fectly formed, and There was every pros
pect of their OUTLYING the doctors TO
whom they wished to make the sale
A medical college in this city has among
it's records and papers a bill or SAFE lor
a Woman's head. The woman Is alive to-
day. and should her name be mentioned
it would be recognized by hundreds OF
persons She is gifted with marvel
ously tenacious memory, and The doctors
are curious to know just what pecunarlty
her brain will show. This cannot be learn
ed during her life but she, being willing
to advance the cause of science, has sold
her head to the institution for the nominal
sum of $40. In her will she has left in
structions thar her body shall be decapi-
tated, and while her trunk and limbs snail
be buried in the ordinary way, the head
and brain shall go to the surgeons for
dissection.
In all the German hospitals every pa
tient who enters does so with the knowl-
edge that II he or she dies in the instltu-
ton the body is by law destined for the
dissecting table. Custom which TAMIL
iarzes all things, has overcome all sense
of repugnance in the matter, and the
charity patient gives no second thought
to the final disposition of his body.
In French hospitals the same custom
prevails, and any peculiar malformation
OF the body in deceased patient is at
once subjected to the surgeons knife.
Attempts have been made to pass a sim
liar law in England and in this country,
but the public sentiment has thus far
overruled the demands of the anatomists,
and with few exceptions medical colleges
are obliged to look elsewhere than char
ity hospitals for subjects for the dissect-
ing table.