[XV] 



EARLY HISTORY OF ANATOMY IN 

 NEW ENGLAND 



Xhe cycle of events in respect to human anatomizing, in America, 

 has been different quantitatively but not qualitatively, when 

 compared with that in Europe. What progress was made between 

 the time of Vesalius in Italy and the Hunters in England, approxi- 

 mately a span of 300 years, developed more rapidly in the United 

 States. However, the same series of events and struggles evolved 

 in both places: hesitancy in developing adequate dissection laws, 

 body snatching, indictments, high emotional feelings, riots and 

 even murder, the last to a lesser extent. Here the problems were 

 somewhat different. The country was colonized; it sought and 

 succeeded in obtaining its independence; its population quickly 

 expanded; it went through the Civil War and state after state was 

 added to the Union. This necessitated more and more medical 

 schools and students. Only minor Federal laws to regulate the ob- 

 tainance of bodies have been enacted. Whenever medical schools 

 were established within a state sovereignty, the legislators were 

 confronted with a delicate situation; they either evaded the issue 

 or formulated codes, which with few exceptions, were not ideal. 

 Between 1765 and 1957, an interval of 192 years, a total of 

 459 private or state medical schools have functioned at one time 

 or another in the United States; of these, 81 have survived. A 

 breakdown of the available data on the number of medical schools, 

 freshman enrollment and the population is given in tabular 

 form below: 



Year 



1765 

 1800 

 1810 

 1840 



