194 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



senior students at Harvard (Harrington, '05; Harvard Medical 

 School, '06). 



Elected professor of anatomy and surgery at Harvard, on 

 November 22, 1782, Warren was inducted into office October 

 7, 1783. Immediately afterwards, he gave a six-weeks course in 

 anatomy; it was held either in the basement of Harvard Hall 

 or in Holden Chapel, with an enrollment of twenty students, 

 who were required to obtain the consent of their parents. Twenty- 

 six dollars was the fee charged to new students, $21 to seniors. 

 This presentation was considered to be a novelty by the citizenry 

 of Boston. Bodies for this instruction and his other demonstra- 

 tions were not easy to obtain; when the resurrection men failed 

 him, Warren obtained material as best he could, utilizing ampu- 

 tated parts from the hospitals. 



The first and probably the only national law concerned with 

 human anatomizing was passed by the United States Congress 

 in 1790. It gave federal judges the right to add dissection when 

 imposing the death penalty for murder (Hartwell, 1881a: Nor- 

 wood, '44). 



John Warren was a man of medium stature, well-propor- 

 tioned physically and he carried a bayonet scar inflicted at Bunker 

 Hill. He was dedicated to his profession and exhibited great 

 energy, zeal, concentration and determination in those pursuits 

 which he considered worthy. By some, he was regarded as im- 

 pulsive, which may have been exaggerated by the rapidity of 

 his mind and movements; these were characteristics which he 

 maintained throughout life and were such that they probably 

 did not endear him to his contemporaries. The decisions which 

 he made were almost instantaneous both with his patients and 

 others. A quality which overshadowed all others was his extreme 

 sensitiveness to all suffering. He was able to overcome this while 

 young with a natural youthful resilience but later in life it pre- 

 cipitated prolonged periods of depression, fostered by a some-^ 

 what weak constitution and physical infirmities. Politics and 

 social events commanded some of his attention also and he was 

 often called upon to submit articles or deliver orations expressing 

 his viewpoints. Though not a democrat, he believed, in general, 

 in equality among people. 



