History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

376 History of Medical Practice in Illinoisthe thirty years from 1800 to 1829, inclusive, the total number of executionsin that state averaged only little over two a year, and by no meansall those to be executed were further sentenced to be dissected." 23 Sincethe number of medical schools in New England increased from one in1784 to eight in 1823, and since all of their students were expected to dohuman dissection, it is evident that the choice was between two alternatives;either to abandon the teaching of practical anatomy, or to makeadequate provision for dissection by stealing bodies from graves. The thirstfor knowledge and the aim of proficiency in the practice of medicine couldnot resist for long the second alternative.Accurate statistics can never be arrived at to tell us how many graveswere robbed to advance medical science. On the basis of the number ofgraduates of medical schools from 1800 to1900, and on inaccurate estimatesof the number of students who attended such schools without graduation,including those who studied medicine only under preceptors, ProfessorWaite ventures to say that cemeteries, churchyards, and privateburial plots in New England have far more empty graves than is supposed.It is his estimate that more than 1600 students who did dissection in Vermontalone from 1820 to 1840 used at least 400 cadavers, for "six studentscommonly participated in a dissection done in a medical college, and fewer,often only one—in a dissection done with a preceptor." Waite's conservativeconjecture places the number of grave-robbings in New England inthe 19th century at a few thousand.In view of the relatively few open riots against medical colleges becauseof grave-robbing, the calculation of Waite may seem too high. Butwe should not forget that disinterments of this kind were seldom detected,more seldom were the perpetrators apprehended, convicted orand stillpunished. Discovery in many cases came many years later when the deadwere to be removed or transferred to another burial site and the excavationof the graves disclosed no skeletal remains. Moreover body-snatching occurredprobably more often in the potter's field 24 or from graves of obscureor friendless persons. Consequently, little ado was made when such a theftcame to light.But unlawful exhumation of the dead was discovered often enough toinflame the public and to demand more rigorous laws against graverobbing.At the same time it was aware of the inefficacy of the laws andtherefore invented various procedures to prevent such theft or to makethis more difficult. Filling the grave with a mixture of straw and soil, or ofsticks and stones, or placing planks or anchoring a grid of iron over the23Waite, ibid.24 See Waite: Grave Robbing in New England already cited, for the origin of the designation"potter's field."