42 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



soul and that the latter was liberated to be judged at death. When 

 it joined the blessed ones, nothing but eternal peace lay ahead. 

 The ultimate fate, however, was that all would be destroyed by 

 a great conflagration at the end of a certain era. 



The situation in Italy was probably more primitive than in 

 either Greece or Egypt. It was entirely against Roman beliefs to 

 perform human dissection. The body of man was held in great 

 respect and a belief in resurrection prevented physical dismem- 

 berment. Even looking at a corpse was prohibited by Pontifex 

 Maximus (Gordon, '42). Not even a human skeleton was known 

 to exist in Rome up to Galen's time. 



Human dissection was precluded among the Hebrews of the 

 pre-Alexandrian era both because the people regarded the body 

 as unclean and because of their belief in resurrection. Even touch- 

 ing a corpse or entering a room with one in it, contaminated a 

 person. This was propounded in the Old Testament. If such a 

 contact occurred, it was necessary to be isolated for at least seven 

 days and then purified (Gordon, '42, '44; Guttmacher, '35; Hag- 

 gard, '29). Very little human anatomy was expressed in the Bible. 



China probably, as a whole, has been one of the most back- 

 ward countries in respect to legalizing human dissection. Al- 

 though there is some evidence that it was practiced temporarily 

 as far back as 2700 B.C., this was undoubtedly an oddity (Cas- 

 tiglioni, '41), for it was not legalized in that country until about 

 A.D. 1913 (Cowdry, '20a, '21). Osier ('22) states that early Chi- 

 nese and Japanese medicine gives the impression of impalling 

 stagnation and sterility. The Oriental religions, especially that of 

 Confucianism, were such that touching the human body under 

 certain conditions was considered unholy (Haggard, '29; Hume, 

 '30). 



References were made to the human body in the earliest 

 Hindu writings (Vedas). There is little question that the people] 

 of that remote era generally stood in awe of a dead person andj 

 severe penalties were imposed for molesting it. The only way! 

 primitive, anatomical knowledge was gained was by observation! 

 of bodies dismembered by war, in the chase or by accident^ 

 (Barker, '01). 



