HUMAN DISSECTION IN THE SOUTH ATLANTIC STATES 225 



lected before the hospital, looking for Dr. Hicks, without avail, 

 and then searched the homes of other physicians for evidences 

 of dissecting material. 



The governor, mayor and chancellor, who had assembled, 

 appealed for order but were for the most part ignored. The 

 mob went to the College of Physicians and Surgeons and swarmed 

 through the building but found nothing. By afternoon, 300 to 

 400 persons had gathered before the jail demanding the doctors. 

 Later the assembly, which had swelled to about 5,000 began to 

 storm the prison; the attack was put down only after the militia 

 resorted to extreme methods: shooting and killing eight rioters. 

 On the 15th, two days after the affair started, the military group 

 was reinforced. Although the city was alive with excitement, the 

 riot was not resumed. Later in the day, the soldiers held a parade. 



Afterwards public sentiment ran so high that newspaper 

 advertisement of physicians were withheld for about ten days. 

 Several of the surgeons, known to be dissectors or suspected of 

 being implicated, publicly disavowed any connections with grave- 

 yard desecrations. Members of the profession tried to persuade 

 the public that the cadavers utilized were either condemned 

 prisoners or Negroes taken from cemeteries remote from city 

 limits. Their words went unheeded and anxious relatives flocked 

 to check on the graves of their loved ones. For a long time, there 

 were reports of "Dead Guard Men" protecting new graves (Davis, 

 1877; Hartwell, 1881a; Ladenheim, '50). 



The New York State legislature soon after (1789) passed an 

 act to prevent the odious practice of digging up and removing 

 bodies interred in cemeteries for the purpose of dissection. The 

 penalty for so doing was corporal punishment. It also provided 

 that those executed for murder, arson or burglary, if unclaimed, 

 or given by relatives, could be used for dissection. 



