224 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



robbers most often combed pauper cemeteries chiefly because 

 they were buried closely together, often without coffins, which 

 made it easier to remove them. There was also greater leniency 

 toward thefts there. 



In 1763, a Negro who was found guilty of rape was executed 

 and subsequently dissected by surgeon^ interested in anatomy. 

 This was a few years before the founding of King's College (1768). 

 The organization of this school was the aftermath of a course 

 given in anatomy by Dr. Samuel Glossy, beginning in 1763; this 

 individual became professor of anatomy there. It later merged 

 with the College of Physicians and Surgeons (1814), which was 

 founded in 1807 (Davis, 1877; Ladenheim, '50). 



During the winter of 1788, reports circulated throughout 

 the community that grave robbing had been committed both at 

 a Negro cemetery and from the one at Trinity Church. This 

 precipitated a series of letters to the editors of newspapers, which 

 stirred up the feelings of the populace. These apparently con- 

 ditioned them so that they were in a responsive mood on the 

 occasion of a specific incident, the "Doctor's Riot," which oc- 

 curred on April 13, 1788. The following is an account of the 

 events: Three boys were playing near the hospital when one 

 climbed a ladder and looked into the laboratory window, where 

 several students and an instructor were dissecting a cadaver. A 

 Dr. Hicks either hung up an arm to dry, waved it at the peeking 

 child to frighten him away, or held it before his face and told 

 him it was his mother's arm (the boy's mother had in fact re- 

 cently died). The lad fled in terror and reported the incident to 

 his father who visited the grave of his recently deceased wife and 

 found the coffin open and the body missing. He returned to his 

 fellow laborers, who, armed with tools marched toward the hos- 

 pital. Adding numbers as they proceeded, they entered its south 

 wing and broke into the dissecting-room. There they found some 

 partially dissected bodies which they carried away and buried that 

 evening. Hospital property was wrecked. Rioters were sent out to 

 capture the physicians who were involved. Dr. Hicks managed 

 to escape, but his four companions were apprehended; they were 

 saved from immediate violence by the mayor and sheriff who 

 put them ill jail for safety. The following morning a crowd col- 



