The Horrors of the Dissecting Room.

Te Aroha News, Volume V, Issue 270, 6 June 1888, Page 6

The Horrors of the Dissecting Room.

Wk published fclio other day a lottor fiom ' A Medical ' deploring tho dearth in the dissecting room, owing to tho growing dis inclination amongst tho poor to die in tho workhouse. Tho following statement, which is broadly true of a good many more hospitals than tho one our correspondent vouches for, will hardly, wo fear, do much to remove tho deaitli, unless, indeed, tho publication of the scandal induces the hospital authoiities to prescne .some- little decency in tho w-o they mako of pauper corpses : — 1 Tho public,' writes this coi respondent, 'is blissfully ignorant of tho treatment paupers' bodies really receive in tho dissecting rooms. The Act ol Parliament, which provides thai nobody be mutilated beyond a certain ine\itablo extent, is systematically iguoied and broken. The following is an outline of the system puisued in at least oik; /nienb London hospital, and poibaps in many • — A body is iccchcd (paupers w ho die and whose bodies arc unclaimed by iiicnd.s. aio all sent to hospitals), and a sum -as much as L 5 in some cases- allowed tor it. All pai tieulai s i elating to the body aio then entered in a book, and an identifying number put upon the coipsc, which is then put in pickle until lequiicd. This may bo ilia week, a month, a year, accouliug to the demand. When a call i 1i 1 - mado for n body, it is listed out ot pickle and taken to the dissecting loom. Hero it is apportioned among the vaiious applying .student-, ab certain lived puces for dilleicnt paits. One wants a toieann, another a foot, hand, c'e. The whole body is sold in this w a\ , the pails I >omict dissected oil as KMjuned. Kach student has a locker in which he keeps his poiiion a he.i\,\ penalty attaching to icinovmi; any piece ot human lle.sh from the precincts ot t!ic ho-pital. Dining the cutting up ot tlu bod} and subsequent dissection ol itsji.iils.i good many pieces are IS. row n upeu the floor ot the loom. A poiteris emplo\ed who yoes round at intei\aU with a biush and pan collecting Ihe-e moi-ils, which aie icmo\ed to a (ellai. In due time follow all the other ■ pier< -. of lle-h, bone-, etc. These a c all . thiown into one heap in the cell.v. It 1 mu-t he undeistood that pel haps half a do/en bodies aio 'going at one tune in thr (li--c(>ti[)<r loom, and tin- heap is composed of liagmonts of all. In tho tell ir i- a pair of -cdes, and -omo oidinaiy ' shell ' cofhns. \\ hen not occupied in -.weeping up tho bits, the poitei i- engaged in wiighimjf up these uiwi\our> moisels' into .i cei'.iin ([iiantity which i> supposed to e(|ual the body. With ( 1 1 1 *- mass the c lllm is tilled and .scicwed down. Then buiNinu ila^ comes— pci haps ten O' twche collms full — round comes the heai-e, and oil go the "pieces' — nun, women, and ehildien, all mived up toiietliei in uloiiou^ confusion —to tho cemeteiy. lleic the whole hoirible l>uxi-ne'-s' concludes with theClnneh of Knglaiid Inuial seiwce ' The eollnis aie llnnsy allaii-, and one wondeis what would happen if otk luoke a!/ the gra\eside, and the cleiu\man saw, s.iy, two mutilated head-, half a-do/en feet, and three leu- ) w it ha Ljoiy ma— ot -eiaps 101 l out ! l>ut it '» oul\ a jiaupcr w hoi i nobody own--, and, si)s jNledieal, ' Wnat dilleience, may I a-k, cm it make to a man, whalexer use i-- made of hi- bod) attei deatli .'" — ' Pall Ma',l Mud get. 1 '