History of medical practice in Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

History of Anatomy Law-' in Illinois ;»i7bodies to the colleges. There was one feature that influenced the hill,— that it exceptedcities having twenty-five thousand. It was finally passed so that Chicagowould be the only city having the benefit of the bill.""Two things should be done to secure die passage of the present bill,— thearguments first used should be used again, and be used forcibly. We should sayto the people of Illinois: The demands of humanity must be met,— must be metby means dirough which physicians become acquainted with the human bodyAnatomical study should go on. If it can go on legally, well and good; if not,it will nevertheless, go on. These are facts which no legislation could or shouldsuppress. The demands of humanity should control our action on this wholesubject. Let us keep around us our children whose sunshiny, joyous lives makeour own lives so precious. Let us have, since it must be so, the means by whichour medical advisers shall be more competent to save from suffering, and prolonglife.""Let it be understood that our legislators aid us by the enactment of a billlegalizing human dissection. But let the mutilation of the earthly tenement berestricted to those who have no friends to be wounded by leaving their bodies tomedical colleges. Let us see to it that this class furnish absolute protection to allthe villages throughout the country. Let the people who with worrying hearts, andeyes suffused with tears, follow their dead to cemeteries, and cover them overwith flowers, know that no rude hands shall desecrate that sacred spot. They cansecure this only in one way,—by supplying the means for medical study. Theycan secure it in no other way but by legalizing methods to procure anatomicalmaterial. These two facts should be brought to the notice of the legislators. Inour efforts to get a bill through the first time, we met with more objections,finally failed, and the matter went on two or three years after our last attempt.It was found that a graveyard had been robbed and the bodies had been broughtto this city. The newspapers spoke of the medical colleges as ghouls. This earlyresurrection was held to be a violation not only of the rights of the living, butof the sanctity of the grave. They represented the doctors as revelling in thistearing to pieces of the beautiful structure God had given this temple of life.I replied very briefly to the statements and attacks made upon the profession,and that led to another attack. Their onslaught was but the echo of public sentiment.They finally admitted that dissection was a human necessity,—concededthat no man who had learned his anatomy from charts and models alone shouldperform any important operation, but asked why doctors did not propose a lawproviding for this public need. I then showed them that a measure intended tomeet the difficulty had three times previously failed in the legislature. It wasquite a surprise to them that such a law had been discussed, and three timesfailed to pass. The outlook being favorable, we went to work and brought thebill up again with such concessions that made it admissible, and not mandatory,for hospitals and other charitable institutions to deliver the bodies of the pauperdead to the colleges. The law was passed. To secure a body now, it must bebought, and that at a very high price. If I were demonstrator of anatomy, I shouldsay to the Board of Commissioners, your charge is too high; we can get bodies ata lower price. You can come down, or your market is gone (Applause). What wewant especially is delivery, upon demand, to medical colleges of the bodies of suchpaupers as have not friends to take care of them, and a sufficient number of themto meet the reasonable demands of medical study." (Long and continued applause.)