Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy / by order of the Massachusetts Medical Society.

  • Massachusetts Medical Society.
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the community, on the necessity of legalizing the study of anatomy / by order of the Massachusetts Medical Society. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be completely avoided, is not all the valid objec¬ tion to dissections entirely removed ? The enactments which have been made with a view to protect graves and sepulchres from vio¬ lation, have been made without any investigation into the wants of the community, and of the medi¬ cal profession ; nor has any inquiry been made as to the practicability of pointing out the class of subjects which are proper to be devoted to the purposes of science. To be sure, the bodies of those who suffer death for their crimes have squie- times been decreed to the knife of the anatomist; and this very circumstance has contributed to render Anatomy odious, without affording a material sup¬ ply of its w^ants. In all our large towns, deaths are continually occurring among a class of persons whose connexion with the sympathies of the living is so slight, that there is no one professing to regret their departure, or willing to show respect to their remains. The number of persons of this description is much greater than might be thought possible in such a state of society as that we live in. In the city of Boston there die annually not much less than a hundred persons who have no relation to mourn for them. Of these, a large part Consists of individuals brought to a premature death by vicious excesses. We have repeatedly known of two or three such dying in one day, from continued debauchery and excess :—per¬ sons sunk so long in disgusting criminality and li¬ centiousness, that the earth seems to be corrupted by their existence, and relieved from a burden by their departure. Shall we jeopard the best lives in