Papers relative to the question of providing adequate means for the study of anatomy. I. Introduction by Robert Ferguson. II. An abstract of the Bill recently passed in America to facilitate the study of anatomy. III. Report from the Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the manner of obtaining subjects for dissection in the schools of anatomy. IV. Address from the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons ... V. On the anatomical question, by B.C. Brodie / [Robert Ferguson].

  • Ferguson, Robert, 1799-1865
Date:
1832
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Papers relative to the question of providing adequate means for the study of anatomy. I. Introduction by Robert Ferguson. II. An abstract of the Bill recently passed in America to facilitate the study of anatomy. III. Report from the Select Committee appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the manner of obtaining subjects for dissection in the schools of anatomy. IV. Address from the Council of the Royal College of Surgeons ... V. On the anatomical question, by B.C. Brodie / [Robert Ferguson]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    people ; and into the evil consequences thence ensuing, as well to the sciences of Medicine and Surgery, as to all who study, teach, and practise them, and eventually to the members of the whole community. They have called witnesses to shew in what manner the wants of the Anatomist are provided for in several foreign schools, and to state their opinion, whether similar methods could be applied with advantage in this country, and if applied, would be adequate to remove the present difficulties. The first origin of these difficulties is obviously to be traced to that natural feeling which leads men to treat with reverence the remains of the Dead ; and the same feeling has prompted them, in almost all times and countries, to regard with repugnance, and to persecute, Anatomy. As the importance of the science to the well-being of mankind was discovered, the governments of different states became its protectors, and in this country particularly, by the statute of Henry the 8th, protection to a certain extent was given, and intended to be given to it; but that protection, which at first, perhaps, was fully adequate, owing to the rapid progress of the Science, has long since become wholly insufficient. How limited were the wants of the Science in the former part of the last century, may be learnt from the lectures of Dr. William. Hunter, who describes the professors of the most celebrated schools, both at home and abroad, as employing in each course of lectures, not more than one, or at most two, subjects, and as exhibiting the performance of the operations of surgery, not on human bodies, but on those of animals. He represents the students in Medicine and Surgery as never exercising themselves in the practice of dis¬ section, because for such practice they had no opportunities. For such a system of instruction the provisions of the statute of Henry the 8th might well be adequate, and these provisions, indeed, may now be considered of importance only as a distinct admission of the principle, that the government of this country ought to protect Anatomy. The reformation of this antiquated and imper¬ fect system took place, in this country, in the year 1746, when Dr. William Hunter, having a singular enthusiasm for the science, established complete courses of Anatomical Lectures, and opened a regular school for Dissection. The reform thus introduced was complete, and its author exulted before his death in having raised