HUMAN DISSECTION IN THE MIDDLE ATLANTIC STATES 221 



Serving as a surgeon in the War of 1812, he found the horrors 

 therein appalling. 



Horner became renowned for his skill at dissection. In 1816, 

 Wistar made him responsible for the preparation of the anatomi- 

 cal specimens used in his course. He was given an annual salary 

 of $500 which served as a real boon. His lectures lacked elo- 

 quence; he resorted to statements of fact and was painstaking in 

 presenting them. For thirty years, he served as dean of the school 

 and, under his direction, it maintained the highest standards 

 in medical education. He was also a very successful surgeon 

 (Middleton, '23b). 



Horner was succeeded by Joseph Leidy (1823-1891), who 

 became one of the greatest naturalists this country or perhaps 

 any other has ever produced. As a youth, he was often called, "a 

 queer boy" (Middleton, '23a). On his first exposure to dissection, 

 Leidy had this to say: "I was so disgusted with the dissecting- 

 room that, after spending the first half-day there, I went away 

 and could not be induced to return for nearly six weeks, and 

 1 did not get entirely over the melancholy produced for a year. 

 Then the desire to acquire information gradually overcame my 

 repugnancy, but so far was I from shaping my course for myself 

 that I never gave up the idea of sometime forsaking the dissecting- 

 room, until I was elected to my present position as professor of 

 anatomy" (Middleton, '23a). Philip Syng Physick, who preceded 

 him, also had some distaste for practical anatomy; both were 

 sensitive and scholarly anatomists. 



Leidy became well-known for the magnificence of his dis- 

 sections and the students held him in high regard. He was gentle, 

 kind and taught anatomy as a pure science; his demonstrations 

 at the cadaver table, formed the most useful unit of his teach- 

 ing as his voice carried poorly in his lectures. A natural be- 

 liever in evolution, he constantly emphasized man's biological 

 I place in nature. In appearance, he looked like a conventional 

 Christ. He had a splendid head, deep-set, pensive blue eyes with 

 almost straight, overhanging eyebrows. In stature, he tended 

 toward stoutness since he carried 200 pounds on a five foot, ten 

 inch frame and he walked in a stooped manner. He was not in- 

 terested in wealth and he led a quiet and unpretentious home 

 I 



