PETITION
                   OF THE

l*tal |w»ttj of t||e Initaiis of iftt Cits tf $eto*4
                   TO THE
       HONORABLE THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY
                   OF THH
            STATE  OF NEW-YORK,
                    FOE

     THE LEGALIZATION OF ANATOMY.
                   ALSO,

   AN  INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,

 DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE
        PNIVERSITY, FOR SESSION 1658-4, AND ENTITLED

             AN  APPEAL
                    TO THE
      PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK,
                    TO
  LEGALISE THE DISSECTION OF THE DEAD.

        By JOHN  W. DRAPER, M. D.
             PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY.




                 NEW-YORK:

                    1853. 
 
           PETITION
                   or tui

fttctal Jwaltg 0f % fllnibtrsitn flf tirt (tittr ai U'eto-gnrk,
                   TO THE
       HONORABLE THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY
                   OF THE
            STATE OF NEW-YORK,
                    FOB

     THE LEGALIZATION OF ANATOMY,

                   ALSO,

   AN INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,

DELIVERED AT THE OPENING OF THE MEDICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE
       UNIVERSITY, l'Ui: SESSION 1S58-4, AND ENTITLED

            AN APPEAL
                   TO THE
     PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW-YORK,
                    TO
  LEGALISE THE DISSECTION OF THE DEAD.

        By JOHN W. DRAPER, M. D.
             PRESIDENT OF THE MEDICAL FACULTY
      \EW-YORK. :
PUBLISHED BY THE FACULTY.
1S53. 

\*
v^
AVm. C  Martin, Printer, 111 John St., Ar. 
THE PETITION of the Medical Faculty of the
   University of the City of New- York, to the Honor-
  alb the Senate and Assembly of the State of New-
   Yorh, respectfully sheiveth:
  That  your petitioners, being Physicians, and consti-
tuting the Medical Faculty of the University of the
City  of New-York,  are  authorized by law to give
instruction in  the  various branches of  Medicine and
Surgery, the  foundation of  which is  the  science of
Anatomy.
   Your petitioners  respectfully represent, that the
only manner in which instruction in Anatomy can be
given, and a knowledge of the diseases of  the human
body obtained, is by the dissection of the dead.
   They would moreover set forth, that they, in com-
mon Avith all  other Physicians of this State, are held
accountable, by the  Courts of law, for  errors which
may be committed by them in the practice of their
profession; and that for such errors, arising from insuf-
ficient information respecting the structure and nature
of the human body, they are liable to heavy pecuniary
damages; that while  they are thus required by law
to teach Anatomy, and for any defect in their anatom-
ical information are liable to punishment, they are also 
4
 forbidden, by the law, to obtain that knowledge in the
 only way in which  it can  be acquired—that is, by
 Dissection.
   Your petitioners take leave to represent, that in all
 civilized countries the  practice of  their profession is
 regarded as a very honorable pursuit, its object being
 to relieve the afflicted, whether poor or rich.   Your
 petitioners would state, that they themselves, in  the
 capacity of a Medical Faculty, give surgical and medi-
 cal advice, and  furnish medicines, without charge, to
 about three  thousand destitute persons every  year;
 and they believe  that similar  acts of benevolence are
 practised by many other Physicians.   Asserting thus
 the claims of their profession to  the respect and con-
 sideration of every person, whatever may be his con-
 dition in life, your petitioners  would  respectfully  ask
 from your honorable  body, for that profession as well
 as for themselves,  relief from the present laws  which
 render them liable to ignominious punishment because
 they practice dissection, on which their usefulness to
 the community and the safety of their patients wholly
 depend.
  They  would moreover state, that in the discharge
 of their duty, as teachers of Medicine, they have caused
 an address to be  delivered, of which a copy is  here-
with respectfully presented, setting forth the necessity
of legalizing  dissection;  that of this many thousand 
5
copies have been circulated, and public attention exten-
sively draAvnto the subject; that newspapers of every
political party, and of various religious denominations,
have been led to  make remarks  thereon, and  that
Avithout a single exception, as  far as your petitioners
knoAv,  they ha\'e in every instance advocated  the
repeal  of the existing hiAvs,  and the legalization of dis-
section.  This general acceptance of the points urged
in this address,  your petitioners believe, proves  that
public  opinion is now in advance of existing legislation
on this subject.
  Your petitioners therefore respectfully ask that the
practice  of  dissection may be legalized,  under  such
conditions as may seem requisite and proper  to  your
honorable body.
  All which is respectfully submitted.
                VALENTINE MOTT, M.  D.
                MARTYX PAINE, M. D.
                GUNNING S. BEDFORD, M.  D.
                JOHN AY. DRAPER, M.  D.
                ALFRED C. POST, M.  D.
                WILLIAM II. VAX BUPvEN, M. D.
                JOHN A. SWEPT, M. D. 
 
ADDRESS.
(Jkntlemen t
  It is related of a Avell-knoAvn minister of the Kirk of Soot-
land,  avIio was invited to dine at the table  of a lord, and
requested to ask the accustomed  grace on the A'arious crea-
ture comforts so bountifully spread  before  them, that he
took occasion not only to exercise himself at some length, as
was usual in those times, but also in a  sugge-tive way to
observe, that the present blessings would be greatly enhanced
if it should be put into the heart  of his noble entertainer to
send him a new coat, and still more particularly so it' there
should be added thereto a gown for his Avife.
  I have sometimes thought a similar advantage might be
taken at the  introductory lecture Avhich custom  assigns to
each course in our Medical (\>lleges.  V< <r some reason, which
I could  never  understand, these  discourses are sought for
with avidity,  and circulated and read to a surprising  extent.
Strangely enough, they have become in the  United States
the most ellectual  medium of communication betAveen our
profession and the public;  for thousands who would never
dream of looking into a  medical  journal, take a morbid de-
light in this annual literature.
  Why,  then,  should Professors  of Medicine cast away the
opportunity afforded them ?  Do we not labor under  a great
manv grievances which  we Avant to  have removed?  Are
there  not things Avhich would increase our usefulness  if they
Avere granted to us ?   There are boons which we have to ask,
and rights which Ave have to demand.
  It is of one of these rights I am about to speak this evening.
Like the good Caledonian minister to whom I have referred,
I am addressing myself to one, and intending to reach another. 
8
Nay, perhaps it is not too much for me to assume to be your
mouthpiece, and speaking to you and for you, on one of the
most momentous questions  which concerns our  profession,
arraign the public at the bar of public opinion.
  I know that in the case before me the odds are all against
me.  The people are at once the defendant and  the judge.
The  success of an argument which is to reach  the under-
standing of men, in  spite  of the  sympathies and  natural
instincts of our race, is all but desperate; yet, less so in the
United States than in  any other part of  the world.  The
American, if he  be charged with  injustice and wrong-doing,
even by the most obscure accuser, "will listen, and, if he  be
convinced, will reform.
  At the foundation of all true medical knowledge, and Avith-
out Avhich there can be neither physician nor surgeon, is the
study of Anatomy.   This, Avhich  reveals to us the construc-
tion  of our oAvn bodies, is the only method by Avhich Ave can
reason intelligently respecting the causes of disease, or deter-
mine upon methods of cure.  He who attempts the practice
of medicine Avithout this indispensable preliminary, is an im-
postor. Yet, there  is but one means by which that know-
ledge can be perfectly obtained—it is by the dissection of
the dead.
  The  public  demands  that the  medical institutions shall
furnish it Avith accomplished physicians; yet, it has set its
face  against the only means of doing this—it discountenances
the study of Anatomy.   This sentiment prevails in  every
part of the United States, both in the  cities and in remote
country places.   Some luckless medical  student,  caught  in
the act of a midnight invasion of the grave, is marched off
incontinently to the county jail, with his pick-axe, shovel and
sack.  He may bless his stars that  the walls are thick, and
the gratings  strong,  for a mob is howling outside.   Some
country college,  conspicuous in its remoteness, is  suspected
by the populace of teaching Anatomy: it is torn to the ground, 
9
and the Professors  flee for their lives.  These are not imag-
inary cases, but  realities,  which have  occurred again  and
again, and of which the names and dates  could be, without
difficulty, supplied.
  You are now beginning to understand the point of my dis-
course.   It is Avith this  sentiment  I  have to  deal.  I have
undertaken the almost hopeless task of reasoning the com-
munity out of its determination in this respect.
   Now, if it Avere  worth while, I might  take the different
States in  succession, and show Avhat a discreditable spectacle
their legal enactments present.  Yet, out, of courtesy, I will
abstain, and limit the remarks I  have to make on this point
to my own State-.
   The people of the State of Now-York have directed by laAV,
 that. Anatomy shall  be taught in their  Medical Colleges;
 thev have assigned the conditions under  which they  author-
 ize a distinction—the Diploma of Doctor  of Medicine—to be
 given, one of which is a knowledge of Anatomy.  Even more
 than this  they have quite recently, descending in an unusual
 way to particular details, directed,  by a general law, that the
 science shall be taught  by a  Demonstrator, whose fee  shall
 be five dollars for  every student.   And yet, by another law,
 they have declared that whoever shall be convicted of dis-
 secting  the dead  shall  be sent to the State Prison.   Oh,
 people" of Xew-York! what kind of legislation do you call
 that!  It is no excuse for you that your  neighbors of Penn-
 sylvania  or other States  have stultified  themselves in the
 same Ava.y.
    Under such contradictory laws, the position of the Doctor
 becomes at once dangerous and amusing.  The State prohibits
 him being a good  anatomist or surgeon, and  the Courts pun-
 ish him if he is a bad  one.   A troublesome patient, whose
 le«-  has  become a little too  short, or Avhose  hand has been
 twisted  a little way round, by some well-meant  surgical
 operation, or who, as is more commonly the case, has had no 
10
kind of injury done  him, except  perhaps that  his feelings
have been hurt by presenting his bill, sues the  physician
for damages.   The State has insured  the  doctor's incom-
petence and mal-practice, and the Courts proceed to punish
him for what the State has done.  Nor does the  absurdity
stop here ; for it moreover appears that a doctor is compelled
to attend  any case to Avhich he  may be called, and if he
refuses it is at his peril.  So, the State, having first com-
pelled him to be a bungling surgeon, compels him next to go
to his patient, and then compels him to be fined.
   But some politician Avhispers to me,'" The intelligent part
of the  community understands perfectly  your professional
necessity ;  and  these  penal enactments are  a dead letter—
intended merely as an offering to popular prejudice.  You
doctors should set about  overcoming that  prejudice, and we
statesmen will quickly remove such inconsistencies from the
statute-book.   If it Avas  our  affair, we could persuade the
people that it is pleasant to be dissected, just as  Ave so often
persuade them that it is profitable for them that Ave should
put our hands  into  their pockets."  To  him I reply,  O,
learned  successor of  Solon!  I perfectly  understand your
professional necessity ; a balancing, my friend, between con-
science in one scale, and popular prejudice in the other.  I
accept  your sagacious suggestion, and as  far as  in  me lies,
will try to convince the  community, that  if the  living owe
duties to the dead, the dead also have a duty to the living.
   Practical Anatomy is to be defended by the  advantages
arising to  the living from its cultivation.  Far  beyond all
other means, it aids in diminishing the amount of human
misery, by enabling us to overcome or mitigate the  diseases
to which we are incident; and in proportion as the structure
of the body is better known, so are the chances of relief the
better.   An ignorant man, whose Avatch has stopped, tries
in vain to set  it agoing, by  shaking and jolting; but the
skillful artist, Avho understands its various parts, examines 
11
the complicated mechanism,'and applies the necessary adjust-
ment.   And so with the physician; the knowledge he has
acquired by the examination of the dead, he brings to  the
bedside, of the sick.  The tables of mortality sIioav how strik-
ing is  the result.  In all great cities, and indeed wherever
there is an  intelligent practice of medicine, and  registers of
mortality are  kept, avo  recognize, from period  to period, an
increase in  the chances of life.   I am not wrong in ascribing
this improvement to the more thorough  preparation which
physicians  receive,  and the steady advance of their art.  It
is not  from isolated cases, which Ave may meet Avith in the
narroAV circle of our own experience, that we  are to judge,
but from such universal results as those to Avhich I am re-
ferring.   There are  persons, it is true, who profess to doubt
Avhether, in this point of view, the  practice of medicine is of
any avail.  The issues  of life and  death, they say, are with
God alone,  and avo deceive ourselves, if Ave suppose the skill
of man can postpone the inevitable hour.  The three-score
years  and ten still remain the  proverbial date as of  old: for
Ave are like the sands of an  hour-glass—some fall away early.
and some at a  later time ;  but  there is a moment, predes-
tined  by an  inexorable fate,  beyond Avhich not one  shall
remain.
   I accept the metaphor of those  Avho Avould  reason in this
wav, and admitting that there is a  time beyond which a gen-
eration does not last, I would  bid  them Avatch more closely
the  sand grains of  which they speak.  Some descend in a
direct, and  for some there is marked out a winding way.  In
the changes and chances of this mortal career, the skillful
physician can turn us aside from the downward  course, and
keep us  awhile from the fall.
   [['. then,  there is no  better motive than a selfish desire to
avail ourselves of benefits so great, is it not for each  of us to
do Avhat he can to give force to those  benetits i  But not for
ourselves alone do these advantages arise—.ill classes of soci- 
15
  ety participate in  them, and yet  perhaps not equally.  For
  as long as wealth  is attended by comforts, and poverty by
  affliction and suffering, so long Avill there be a greater demand
  for the skill of the physician among the lowly and desolate;
  and therefore I cast back the infamous assertion,  " You dis-
  sect  the  poor  for  the  sake  of  the  rich," since,  alas!  the
  poor are the greatest gainers thereby.
   When  I look at the bills of mortality of this City, and see
  that sometimes nearly two hundred infants die in  one Aveek,
  and the majority of them among the poor ;  when I  extend
 my view  to a  wider sphere, and find that there are strong
 reasons for believing that the male portion of the Irish Cath-
 olic emigration dies out in less than six years, I am appalled
 at such results.  The public works of the United States con-
 sume each year more human life  than the bloodiest  European
 campaign.  We talk about our conquests of peace,  and boast
 that the wilderness is disappearing before us; we contrast
 the  American  axe with the  Roman sword; but let us not
 deceive ourselves.   The advancing tide of Western progress
 rolls over the emigrant's grave.  The  published accounts of
 railroads and canals show how many dollars such works have
 cost; but they hide the  cost of human life—they say nothing
 of the unspeakable misery that has fallen on the widow and
 fatherless.
   Perhaps it may be an inexorable  destiny  that no nation
 shall  attain to greatness except by a waste of life.  The old
 empires reached dominion  through a  path of blood—we go
 through an avenue of graves.   Avaricious of gold and prodi-
 gal of life, we have marked  our track to the  Pacific.   We
 have  drained the  labor of Europe, and  our  eyes  are now
 turned on  that of Asia.  We say, there is the redundant pop-
 ulation, and here is the vacant land.  If the dead could speak,
 they would in bitterness exclaim, « Even so have we found it "
   Can there, then,  be nothing done to reduce  this awful de-
vastation (  In cities a sparing provision has  been made- 
13
sometimes by private charities,  sometimes  by municipal
or State endowments  for hospital establishments—and  the
amount of good these institutions do no  tongue  can tell.
But what are  they, compared to the gigantic evil to be grap-
pled with ! Their benefits are essentially local, and can not be
of any avail  to the laborer stricken witli fever in nora-sos  a
thousand  miles away,  or torn by  an explosion on some  dis-
tant railroad  work.   Clearly, there is  but one means by
Avhich the evil can  be  reached, and that means is to spread
all over the country a race of intelligent and rightly prepared
physicians.
  I say, then, it is the bounden duty of every conscientious
man to give his support to the Medical Colleges, and see that
they lack nothing needful for their efficiency—remembering
that it is these institutions  alone  which  can  be brought to
bear on this waste of life.   The knowledge which  has been
gathered  in the dissecting-room Avill produce its results in the
railroad shanty ; it will  he felt among that wandering popu-
lation which  fringes the advance of civilization; nay. even
here at home, it will find its way into those sinks of destitu-
tion and vice which your hospitals can never  reach.   For
the sake of living humanity, permit your colleges to dissect
the dead.
   I sav, moreover, that no conscientious  man  is at liberty to
withhold his exertions from  enlightening the  public on  this
matter, nor to cease until  the result is  obtained.  If, as a
people, we stand idly  by, and  make  no effort,  there lies at
our door a great  national crime.   All history teaches that
such sins are  never overlooked.  D not the Spaniard still in
the hands of  the avenger for that Indian blood  which cries
for retribution from the silver mines of Mexico .'   For the
failings of the individual there is mercy ;  but in the ways of
Providence no mediator is provided for the sins of  nations.
There is an inflexible  return of good for good, and evil for
evil. 
14
  It often seems to me a surprising thing, when I witness
the charity of this  City—its sympathies  sent out in a thou-
sand ways in behalf of the destitute and afflicted—the wealth
that is so lavishly expended in doing good, no matter whether
the object of it be here or in distant countries—that so little
interest is taken in the Medical Colleges, which, in truth, are
first among the means of ministering to the physical suffer-
ings of our race.  Unsustained by the State, without aid from
the community, these  institutions  of true learning quietly
discharge  their duty ;  but perhaps the  day is  not distant
when they shall be better understood,  and have their reward.
  The  illustration  I have been  draAving from the dreadful
loss of emigrant life in the United  States is only one out of
many that might  have  been presented.   Reasons just as
forcible might be applied to every rank of society, for there
is no exemption from disease.   Especially  in  those  cases
Avhich require the  skill of the surgeon does the necessity of
anatomical knowledge  become conspicuous.   Does any one
of us certainly know  that  before  to-morrow he may not
require that skill to tie an artery,  or to amputate  a  limb %
Speaking as  I  do  noAv,  in the  presence of the first living
surgeons,  is there  any necessity for me to  enforce  this pre-
cept ( They will bear their testimony that their art can not exist
except upon anatomy as its basis, and  that just in proportion
as the  surgeon is skillful, so must his knowledge of anatomy
be profound.
  And here, again, though we are all liable to accident, for
we knoAv not what a moment may bring forth, and all, there-
fore, deeply interested  in the perfection of surgery, I may
once more inquire, by whom is it that these benefits are
chiefly  felt?  What class among  us is it to which such
troubles are most incident ?   Is  it the man who luxuriously
rolls through our streets, and  wears  aAvayhis life in idleness?
Or is it the laborer, who earns his bread by the sweat of his
brow, who has to face  the hardships, and  risks,  and bitter- 
15
ness ; who, if there is a dangerous  service to he done, must
perform it, though at the peril of life and limb ?  Five-sixths
of the surgical practice of this State is among that class.
  Whoever follows the argument here presented, will recog-
nize that it is not without purpose  I so  repeatedly return to
this point of vieAv.   The opponents of the legalization of anat-
omy appeal to the prejudices of the laboring class, and con-
ceal from them their great share of the benefit.  In bringing
the whole community to a better understanding of this mat-
ter, it should unquestionably be our first object to satisfy all
that Avhat we seek is  not for the exclusive advantage of one,
but for the common good.   It takes nothing from the force
of the argument Avhen it thus turns out that the poor are the
greatest gainers.  Such a conclusion should cast a ray of light
on the vieAvs of the reluctant politician.
  The Western territories  have a  claim  upon the Atlantic
States—a claim for  protection and aid.   Their  population
constitutes what might he justly termed the advanced-guard
of the American nation : its duty is to prepare the way for
the masses of civilization that  follow.  In  the last  seventy
years, pursuing a steady course, it  has pushed  forward from
the ridges of the Alleghanies to near the foot of the \i< ' y
Mountains; at one point it has throAvn out a column to the
Pacific.  It is a duty of hardship and risk—a struggle with
the ru^gedness of nature and the  treachery of the Indians,
We have no means of fairly estimating the loss of life in this
duty; but  considering  its nature, Ave may be assured that
what holds good in other warfare holds good in this too—the
advanced guard bears the brunt of  the campaign.   A life of
adventure  must needs be a life of  accident.   Xew-Y«»rk,
which beyond all other States reaps the advantage of these
labors, ought surely to take the lead in giving succor to those
who thus pre-eminently  work for her good.  My friends :
vou can not found hospitals there, but you can provide the
accomplished physician and skillful surgeon.  There are ad- 
16
mirable societies in this  City which occupy themselves in
sending missionaries for the religious instruction of these our
distant"brethren; but not one, except the  Medical Colleges,
which sends them the means of physical  relief.  The pesti-
lential miasm, and  accident, are suffered to do their work.
And so again I say that it is a solemn duty, which you can
not divest yourselves of, to omit no means for the thorough
instruction of those  avIio are led  by Providence  to dispense
the benefits of medicine to those distant regions.  It is not for
you to put difficulties in the way  of their obtaining the know-
ledge they need.  So long as  there  stands on your statute-
book  a law repressing the study of anatomy, and thereby
preventing a knowledge of surgery,  the State of Xew-York
is guilty of a crime to the West.
  I stand  here in the midst of a community familiar  with
Missionary projects—a community which pours out its wealth
for the spiritual Avelfare of heathen tribes all over the globe.
I ask that community Avhat answer it will render when it is
called to an  account for the extinction of the Indian tribes of
this Continent ?  For Avant of  a physician Avho could vacci-
nate, the small-pox  has swept off whole nations,  not  leaving
a solitary surviA^or.   Do you suppose that the interest you
have taken in Syria, or India, or Burrnah, will  excuse you for
this aAvful desolation at your own door %
  In this manner, I come to the  chief point of my discourse,
which is to tell you that institutions for  the  cultivation of
medicine and surgery are not to be dealt lightly by, and that
you have a responsibility in their welfare Avhich you can not
shake  off—especially as respects colleges in  the  City; for
though I would not utter  a word derogatory to our country
institutions,  ably administered as they are, yet it must come
home to the common sense of every man  that it is not in a
country village, but in a great city, that disease is to be seen.
It is not in  Oxford, or Cambridge, hut in London, that the
medical schools of England are found,  There is a physical 
11
necessity which overrules  all legislation.  Here, in New-
York, you  will sometimes have three thousand emigrants
landing in one day—a mass of destitution to which the med-
ical  student may extend  succor, and from which  he may
draw knowledge.  Duty to yourself, to your family, to the
City, to the State, to the  nation,  demands that you shall
help, as best you may, in increasing the means of usefulness
of your Medical Colleges; nor can you, without doing wrong,
embarrass their action by penal laws.
   It was a profound  sense  of the advantages  which would
accrue to suffering humanity, doubtless  suggested  by such
reflections  as these  we have been entertaining, which first
led the Greek kings  of Egypt to break through the practices
of all antiquity, and especially through the religious senti-
ment of the country they ruled  over, in  directing the Pro-
fessors of the Medical College at  Alexandria to dissect  the
dead and prepare treatises setting forth the internal construc-
tion of man.  Exact medicine  dates from those enlightened
times ;  and though in subsequent ages, as the Roman empire
declined, and the Saracen  power was developed, anatomical
investigation ceased—for the Koran  pronounces him defiled
who touches a corpse—yet the knowledge  which had  thus
been contributed by the Macedonian monarchs was too pre-
cious to be lost.  It was  preserved throughout the Pagan
times,  and handed  down, from physician to physician, in
 Africa and Spain, until long  after  the  Crescent had sup-
 planted the Cross.   The lapse  of nearly seventeen  hundred
 years, and perhaps the surreptitious researches of the physi-
 cians of the fourteenth century, began to suggest the necessity
 of revising what had thus been derived from remote anti-
 quity.  With liberal views, the Papal Governments set an
 example to Europe, and Italy became distinguished at once
 as the fountain of anatomical knowledge.  When, out of the
 long list of her great anatomists, I recall some of those whose
 names are immortally connected with the structure of the
                3 
18
 human body; when I speak of the tubes of Eustachius, and
 those of Fallofius, the wing of Ingeassius, and the lobe of
 Spigelius, the sinuses of Valsalva, and the glands of Meibo-
 mius, the bridge of Varolius, and the valve of Yieussens, the
 nerve of Virars, and the vein of Salvatella, the sounds fall
 like household words on the ear of the medical student.  A
 series of splendid discoveries and works was the result;  dis-
 coveries which are a lasting monument to that glorious coun-
 try, the mother of European civilization.
  It was my intention to have given you a few thoughts on
 what might  be  termed the religious view of this matter;
 though, standing here a mere medical professor, perhaps I
 might have stepped from my right position in so doing. And
 after all, Avhere  is the necessity ?  It is enough that I  fall
 back on the fact  I have just mentioned.  Whatever  our reli-
 gious sentiments may be, Protestant  or Catholic, Ave shall
 surely all agree  in this, that  they who thus first sanctified
 practical anatomy before Europe, deliberated when they took
 that course.  Yet they  did it in  an age not only of acute
 theological  discussion, but of the deepest feeling: it was done
 in vieAv of  the solemn services for the dead.  It was done
 with the consent of  men of the  largest understanding, the
 highest philanthropy, and whose sincere  piety no  one can
 question.  All that  I could say in this  respect, sinks into
 insignificance when  compared with the discussions which
 must of necessity have taken place  among those able men
 who looked at the matter in every light, and in the face of
 semi-barbarian but profoundly religious Europe, lent their
great authority to the conclusion, that it is lawful to dissect
 the  dead.
  " Twice has Rome governed the world—once by her Caasars
and once by her Popes."  That is a saying of Mazzini's.  He
might have said thrice ;  for she has governed it, too, by her
science.  How many of  the germs of modern knowledge do
we owe to that  fruitful  soil?  how many great indentions? 
19
It was in Italy that the laws of the descent of bodies to the
earth, and of the equilibrium of fluids, Avere first determined
by Galilko.   It Avas in the Cathedral of Pisa that that illus-
trious philosopher AA'atched  the swinging of the chandelier.
and observing that its vibrations, large  or small, were made
in equal times, left the House of God, his prayers  unsaid,
but the pendulum clock invented.   It Avas to the Senators of
Venice that he first showed the  satellites of Jupiter, the
crescent form of Yenus, and the spots upon the Sun.  It was
in Italy that Sanctorio invented the thermometer; that Tor-
eicklli constructed  the barometer, and  demonstrated the
pressure of the air.  It  was there that (' astelli laid the foun-
dation of hydraulics, and discovered the laws of the flowing
of water.   There, too, the first Furopean astronomical observ-
atory was  established,  and  there Stancari first counted the
number of vibrations of a string which is emitting  musical
notes.  There Gasskndi  determined  the  velocity of sound
through the atmosphere, and showed that every note, high or
Ioav came with an  equal SAviftness.  It Avas there that De
Dominis gave the first idea of the  true nature of that most
beautiful  of all meteors, the rainbow; and Grimaldi proved
that two rays of light—no matter how brilliant they may be—
 can be so combined as  to produce total  darkness, and so laid
 the foundation of that great theory which, next after the
 theory of  Universal  Gravitation of Nkwtox. is the noblest
 conception to which the mind of man has ever yet attained—
 the wave-theory  of  light.   The  Florentine  Academicians
 showed that dark heat might be reflected by mirrors  across
 space ; and in our own times Melloxi has proved that it may
 be polarized.  The first philosophical societies a\ ere the Ital-
 ian ; the first botanical garden was established at Pisa, and
 the first classification of plants given by  C.KSALnxrs.  The
 first geological museum was founded at Verona, and the first
 who cultivated, the study of fossil remains—the foundation
 of modern geology—were Leon audi m Vinci, the painter, and 
20
 Fracaster.  The great discoveries of this century, which have
 immortalized the name of Davy, it is true, are the property
 of England ; but the instruments which Davy used bear the
 names of Galvani and Volta.  Why need I speak of science
 alone ?  Who will dispute with  that  illustrious  people the
 palm of music and  painting, of statuary and  architecture ?
 The dark cloud, which for a  thousand years has  hung over
 that beautiful peninsula, is fringed with irradiations of light.
 But in the long list of her wonderful achievements, if duly
 considered, there is none which presents her intelligence and
 power in a more striking view than her action in the circum-
 stance I am recalling to-night.  When  we witness the Mo-
 hammedan  reluctance of  enlightened  America in this nine-
 teenth century, Ave must surely allow to Italy of the fourteenth,
 the merit of a philanthropy greater than our own, and a moral
 courage more than Roman.
   This example was lost on the Northern Europeans.   Vesa-
 lius says they were dissecting dogs in the University of Paris
 in his times.  Indeed, it is only in our own recollection that
 England has felt she could follow it.   It was not until the
 question had been illustrated by the most monstrous crimes,
 that the British Parliament seriously turned its attention to
 the subject.  There, as here, the difficulty consists in arrest-
 ing public attention—when that  is accomplished  you may
 safely wait for the result.   After a close examination of all
 the arguments that could be presented—and it is needless to
 say that they were of every kind, theological, political, social-
 Parliament  legalized the study of Practical Anatomy, and
 made due provision for the pursuit of it, by law.
  Standing in clear relief from the rest of the United States,
 Massachusetts has followed that example.  It is not the first-
 time that she has  taken the lead in deciding national action,
and it is fitting that they who stood foremost in the great
political event, should lead the way in thus conquering pop-
lar prejudice.  Michigan has done the same.  But where 
21
are the rest of the States?   Xo better than France or Eng-
land were in  the eighteenth century.  It is with them that
the medical profession has to deal.  We arraign them at the
bar of public opinion, and demand of them by what authority
they repress medical instruction, and cripple the usefulness
of physicians ; by what anthority they affix upon us the stig-
ma of felons.  We point to the annals  of our profession,
adorned with the most illustrious names, and not yielding by
comparison to any other vocation in  society—no,  neither to
the pulpit, nor  the bar.  Is there any among our  leading
men a cause  of public  scandal, or an evil example to  the
community?   Can the other professions say that!
   I trust a spirit will be roused in the medical profession all
over this Continent, and that by joint action we shall  see
ourselves righted in this matter.  I have no belief in contin-
uing to do as we have done—speaking in whispers, in under
tones, to one another, as though we were conscious of guilt.
I believe in a bold and decisive  course—in telling  the public
that it is in the wrong,  and insisting that it shall do right.
And though  no  one is better aware than myself of  the feeble-
ness  and imperfection with which these Avords are said, no
one is more sure that they will  meet with a hearty response
from every true American physician.
   It is not that  this Institution is especially interested in
increasing its facilities in the way of anatomical supply.  It
seeks no other benefit than what it wishes all others to enjoy.
For them, as well as itself, it asks to be relieved from a false
position.   The interests of society imperatively demand the
study of practical anatomy.  Then why not frankly acknow-
ledge the fact, and make a suitable arrangement by law I
   Medical men, both in their individual  and collective capa-
 city  are daily rendering services of the last importance to
 the community, and, as I  have  already  said, no institutions
 are more conspicuous for the good they do than the Medical
 Colleges.  In this City, rich in its public charities,  you  may 
22
 present which of those charities you please, and I will prove
 that any one of our three  Medical Colleges surpasses it in
 usefulness.  They are centers of a present good to the neigh-
 borhood in which they are placed ; they are sources of untold
 bentfi s to the whole country, by  the  educated men they
 send forth for the  relief of the afflicted.  Centers of local
 good they surely are ; for who can come into this building of
 an afternoon, and see the poor and helpless who are throng-
 ing to it and not be  impressed with this fact?  Here they
 receive adAdce from the most experienced surgeons and phy-
 sicians, and are furnished with remedies  by the Institution,
 free of charge,  and  such operations as  may  be  necessary
 gratuitously performed upon them.  To give an idea of the
 scale on which these things are done, it may be stated, that
 at the Surgical Clinique, which is under the charge of Pro-
 fessor Mott, that under Professor Post, and that under  Pro-
 fessor Van Bdren, not less  than two thousand persons  are
 relieved each year.  In the Obstetric Clinique, which was
 first introduced into the system  of  medical instruction by
 Professor Bedford, there have been presented since its com-
 mencement in October, 1850, more than 5,000 cases.  Con-
 sidering its peculiar nature, failure was  predicted  for this
 Clinique:  you can  bear witness  that this prediction  has
 not been verified.   In similar terms I could  speak of the
 Medical Clinique, and that on diseases of the skin.   It is not
 for me in this presence to allude to the  eminent services  of
 those who thus make these free-will offerings. It is done
 without the receipt of a fee, or the expectation of a reward •
 with no other object than the good of the poor, and the instruc-
 tion of the medical student.   But, for the University in which
 such things are done, I may, without any  offence or any hes-
 itation, demand public consideration in return.
  In  this work  of local chanty, Xew-York'stands  far in
advance  of all her  sister cities,  combining, on this great
scale, relief for the  poor  and  instruction  for  the student 
23
Often have I heard physicians who have visited us exclaim,
" We have seen more  varied  cases of disease in your Uni-
versity in one month, than in practice at home in five years."
It is the spreading knowledge of this fact which is fast tend-
ing to make Xew-York the center of medical education of the
whole country.
  Besides this local charity, the University supplies benefits
of a more diffusive  and  lasting kind.   Considerably more
than one thousand physicians now are practising under its
diploma, in different parts of the United  States.   If it Avere
not invidious to draw  comparisons Avith other undertakings,
we might present the  labors of these men, true missionaries
of humanity.  We might ask who can sum up the good they
are doing to society ;  the sufferings they relieve ; the merci-
ful acts they perforin i  They encounter with equal fortitude
the sun of summer and  the storm of winter.  On the same
errand, and with the same equanimity, they pass through
the luxurious habitations of the rich, or the solitude of the
 midnight forest.  The pestilence finds them at their post.
   Yet why should I say this of our University i it is true of
 all other medical colleges ; and I think the time is not dis-
 tant, Avhen the communities  in Avhich they are located will
 appreciate their worth. The charitable will learn that through
 these institutions works  of mercy may be carried out. and an
 effectual abatement made in the misery and sufferings around
 us.  What  means are  there of doing a wide-spread good,
 which can  for an instant compare Avith the endowment of a
 college clinique! They who  look with pride on the advance
 of their cities to greatness, may be referred to the history of
 other countries in proof of the fact, that the medical school
 has often been the chief glory of a town.  Of our own City,
 New-York, 1 have no fears ;  so rapid is her progress in ma-
 terial prosperity ; so great is the concentration of wealth ; so
 many are the men whose fortunes are to be counted by millions.
 Wo have nearly reached that point at which it is essential. 
24
 to us to have some other reputation than that of a great mart
 for merchandise ; that point at Avhich society dislikes to hear
 how its riches  were gained, but  delights in showing how
 they are spent;  that point  at which  the  medical college,
 along with other institutions for cultivation of letters and the
 fine arts, will be a cherished  object of  public care, and the
 pride of the  City.
   If my voice could be heard in the Legislature of XeAV-York,
 I would address an appeal to it, not only in the name of the
 colleges and of  the body of physicians,  but also in the name
 of humanity. I Avould call on those able men, to whom are
 committed our  interests, to remove from the  statute-book
 laws Avhich  were repudiated in Europe even  in the dark
 ages.  I Avould  ask them  if there be  any  reason  why we
 should stand behind Massachusetts or Michigan in an enlight-
 ened policy.   I would entreat them to  spare this great and
 powerful State the disgrace of having an example set in this
 matter by her younger and feebler sisters ; for, that Practical
 Anatomy will be legalized in the  South and West  as it has
 been in the  Xorth and East, there can not be  a shadow of
 doubt.   To one scrupulous from  conscientious  motives, I
 would point out the authority that has  been given by both
 the chief divisions of the Christian Church, Protestant and
 Catholic.  To another, timid for fear of  popular prejudice, I
 would show that those Avho are to be mainly profited are the
 poor.  Of what avail are all our munificent provisions for
 the destitute, if we deny the only means by which surgeons
 can  be  skillful?   Our hospitals  and alms-houses  can not
 accompany the emigrant  on his lonely way;  but let us make
sure as far as legislation can do it, that wherever  sickness
may surprise him a good physician shall be at  hand.  To
provide  that  good physician, is a matter of philanthropy,
charity,  and State concern—not a party question.  It is one
of those things in which, whatever  our political opinions may
be, we have all the same interest,   Disease  invades all our 
25
families in turn, and takes aAvay one  member after another.
In turn Ave have all to  come under obligations to that medi-
cal skill, the acquisition of Avhich is threatened Avith punish-
ment.   Is it well that laws should exist, Avhich men in every
condition in life, poor and rich, the  governors and the gov-
erned, unanimously agree must be broken '. I would earnestly
enforce my appeal, by  asking—is it  right as between man
and man, that you should put this profession in such an atti-
tude, when  there is  not one of you who Avould  receive  a
medical adviser except you knew that  he  had again and
again broken this law 'I
   There arc questions continually arising in the State, which,
from their  very nature, can not  be made party questions.
This is one of that class.  It must commend itself on its own
merits, not to this or that party, but to  the  understanding
and conscience of each individual.  Perhaps it may happen
that Avhat I am noAv saying  may fall under the notice of
some intelligent and influential member of the Legislature—
one avIio, either in his own person or in his family, is deeply
indebted  to medical  skill.  To him I would  say, noAV is the
time to cancel  that debt.   In  many ways you can  silently
but effectually aid in putting right this public wrong.  It is
of little consequence  in what manner it may be done.  Else-
Avhere intelligent persons have attempted these measures in
an indirect form, as in  enactments for the protection of cem-
eteries, or in bills relating to sepulture ; but considering the
services and rights of physicians, and the injustice that has
been done them ;  considering the power, the intelligence, the
greatness of this State,  is it not fitting to put aside that flimsy
veil, and, calling things by their right names, pass " An act
for the relief of the medical profession of the State of Xew-
York.r  Surround your huv by A\-hatever conditions you may
think best, to protect the sensibilities of society from offence—
such conditions, perhaps, as those which have commended
themselves to the good-Avill of the people in  Massachusetts,
             4 
26
Michigan, and in England; but legalize the dissection of the
dead.
  Here I must stop, and here may well ask myself what have
I been doing ?   In a mixed  audience, and in a public place,
I have dared to speak of things  Avhich elsewhere they talk
of in AA'hispers.  Instead of greeting with pleasant words the
audience Avhich has done me the  honor to be present, I have
taxed you Avith ingratitude  and oppression to your physi-
cians !  With all the arguments, at first sight, against me, I
have told you that you are in the wrong ; and what is more
to the purpose, have proved it.  But then  I knew that in the
Intelligence of each of you, I had an ally, which would for-
tify every argument, no matter how feebly it might be pre-
sented, and make you respect the remonstrances of one  who
venerates the profession to which he belongs, and who will
never hesitate,  at any odds, to defend it, while he has a tongue
that can speak or a pen that can write. 
> 
 
m