DISSECTION IN MEDICAL SCHOOLS OF NEW ENGLAND 205 



for the necessity of such a law was printed and 10,000 copies were 

 distributed throughout the commonwealth. A second bill was 

 introduced at the next session of the legislature in May, 1830. 

 The Governor spoke in favor of providing better facilities for 

 teaching anatomy. A special committee of the lawmakers then 

 reviewed the bill but it was postponed until the following year. 

 It was passed in the January session, 1831, under the title, "An 

 Act more effectively to Protect the Sepulchres of the Dead and to 

 legalize the Study of Anatomy in Certain Cases" (Waite, '45b). 

 It can be classified as the first, effective anatomical law in any 

 English speaking country, antedating the Warburton Anatomy 

 Act of England by fifteen months. The Massachusetts law was 

 somewhat improved by amendments in 1834. It had added signifi- 

 cance because it influenced the neighboring New England states 

 in formulating similar codes. 



One of the main arguments advanced by the proponents of 

 the Massachusetts bill was that adequate legal provision for hu- 

 man dissection would benefit the poor as follows: without satis- 

 factory instruction in practical anatomy, open to all, the Ameri- 

 can physicians who were trained abroad in areas where material 

 for dissection was plentiful, would charge higher fees on their 

 return to this country. 



The new statute permitted civil officials to surrender bodies, 

 for anatomical use, that must otherwise be buried at public ex- 

 pense, with some exceptions; this was a forward step beyond the 

 previous limitation to the bodies of executed criminals. It was 

 defective in two paramount considerations: it was not mandatory 

 since it only granted permission to civil officials to release bodies 

 for dissection at their 'discretion; it forbid the use of the bodies 

 of any stranger, town pauper, or person who during life had 

 signified that his remains be buried or any individual whose body 

 was requested to be interred by kinsman or friend (Harrington, 

 '05; Waite, '45b). 



I A dearth of anatomical material continued for some time 

 after the passage of the Anatomy Act of 1831. About the year of 

 1836, a shortage, in this respect, existed which led the Harvard 

 faculty to petition the Mayor and Board of Aldermen against 

 I 



