10 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



human body was probably the first response of man to the death 

 of his kind (Deniker, '06; Eichler, '24). 



It is the unanswerable questions in life which arouse curi- 

 osity, stimulate the imagination and lead to superstitions. What 

 happens after death can be placed in this category. Where does 

 man go, is death the end, does he live again in another form 

 when he vanishes into the great unknown and can he return to 

 earth again? These became important questions to man as soon 

 as he became able to think. One of the first concepts concocted 

 by aboriginal man was that the dead live on as ghosts and then 

 spirits. In a limited sense, he believed in immortality which today 

 is supported by nearly every religion and numerous philosophies. 

 It may not be an overstatement to say that this was one of the 

 most momentous ideas conceived in the mind of man. The primi- 

 tive savage went even further than this; he endowed all living 

 and nonliving objects with an indwelling spirit (Eichler, '24). 



The foundation for primitive man's concept of the human 

 soul was probably laid not only because he regarded death as 

 akin to sleep, but from the interpretations which he gave to his 

 dreams, shadow, image in water and other similar phenomena. 

 In his nocturnal visions, he could perceive himself, his friends, 

 relatives, and the departed dead. The last came back to him in liv- 

 ing form, conversed with him and performed deeds classified both 

 as normal and superhuman. The impact of this was great on his 

 naturally superstitious mind. It was logical for him to conclude 

 that all human bodies were tenanted by a miniature spirit; that 

 it constituted a vital principle responsible for all of his behavior, 

 consciousness and movements; that it must be restless, wander- 

 ing and sensitive, capable of escaping from its confines under 

 minor or major provocations; that it could perform the acts of 

 which he dreamed: hunting, fishing, fighting or other activities; 

 that it possessed life beyond death and could continue to evince 

 an interest in human affairs, both generally and specifically 

 after death. 



To the savage of the distant past, the soul was the double 

 or duplicate of man or animal, an ethereal image much smaller 

 and finer than the remainder of his body. Because he did not be- 

 lieve in uniformity, it was judged, according to his imagining 



