History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

History of Anatomy Laws in Illinois 389of them, we ma\ justifiably assume, expressive of the best efforts, the speechof Dr. Hosmer Johnson is unquestionably the most impassioned and masterly. With a broad grasp of medical history, a profound insight into thepsychology of peoples, an incisive and impelling Logic and an unsurpassedclarity of language, he portrayed the search alter truth and perfection "Iskill, and the conditions that hamper such aims, in a manner which utterlyannihilates any prejudice against human dissection. Though his speechmust be read in its entirety to value it fully, a few short excerpts, taken atrandom, illustrate the force and beauty of his stirring prose. After sayingthat medical men are not moved by idle curiosity, and that no person hasmore reverence for the dead than they, he continued:"It is no pleasure to them to brave the dangers connected with the procuring olthe human subject,— to visit, we will suppose, in the silent hour of night, thedismal ghostly cemetery, and with their own hands exhume the body of a fellowmortal; and then night after night, for weeks perhaps, while others sleep, in somelonely room, by the light of the midnight taper, to unravel the thread of themysterious fabric in which our spirit natures are enshrouded; and then, in additionto all this to know that over their heads is suspended the sword of legaljustice, and that around them, at any moment the waves of popular fury may berising that shall sweep them from the society, if not from the fair face of God'sfootstool itself. Let some sane man ask himself what motive could tempt him tosuch a task? What idle curiosity? or even what forms of beauty, or perfectionof mechanism could move him to such pursuits? No, ifcuriosity only were to be gratified, dissections would be fewTheirstudies of human anatomy, however, have been pursued with a higher aim thansimply the accumulation of knowledgeWe will not deny thathuman anatomy lends its aid to general science. It also enriches high art; butthese are its secondary, and not its primary uses On thesubject of professional skill and qualifications our laws are most unjust. Why, inour own State, within the last few months, a jury of intelligent men rendered averdict of fifteen thousand dollars against a man for treating in a bungling mannera very badly fractured arm. While, if he had made use of the means necessaryto gain a knowledge of practical anatomy, without which no man can practicesurgery and had been discovered in it, that same jury would have imposed uponhim heavy penalties, and public sentiment would have deemed him guilty ofhigh crime, and have associated him with felons and murderers. Nay, for justsuch an offense as this, men in our own State have been shot down like beasts,while others have been driven into exileThus, gentlemen,we have seen that through all the history of medicine, its usefulness has been inproportion to the zeal with which anatomy has been investigated. It is the principleof our science, the Heaven sculptured column on which stands the beautyand glory of our artDeath stands at your thresholdyou await at the doorway the physicianwhendeath comes to themselves or their families, they prefer the physician who spendshis leisure hours in the dissecting-room rather than the drawing-roomNo one deserves more credit in finally securing the passage of an "Anat-