HUMAN DISSECTION IN THE NORTH CENTRAL STATES 243 



leader of a religious sect in Zion City, a suburb of Chicago, cre- 

 ated a sensation by claiming that both Michelangelo and da Vinci 

 practiced dissection on living humans. This zealot was opposed 

 to all medical treatment and all science. He taught that the world 

 was flat. He wrote: "I will tell the story of a dissecting-room where 

 the first touch of the lancet made the supposed corpse rise from 

 her long trance; and as the sight burst upon her of those butcher- 

 ing students with their garments stained with blood, standing 

 around her, all aghast with fear, holding their knives in their 

 hands, she realized the horrible fact that she had been carried 

 there for dissection, and she instantly died from the shock and 

 the wounds inflicted by their knives. . . . The very best man in 

 the profession will tell you that nineteen-twentieths of the dis- 

 sections are unnecessary. But they please the devils who are pre- 

 paring the doctors, and accustom the youths to the atmosphere of 

 profanity as they hear the filthy and unclean remarks which are 

 made as they stand over the dead bodies and handle the sacred 

 secrecies of humanity and laugh with diabolical glee over the con- 

 sequences of a poor woman's fall or a degraded youth's syphilitic 

 )dy. I tell you this, that pollution, damnation, and hell are hold- 

 ig high carnival there, and a young man who escapes from that 

 dthout life-long injury is only one in a large number" (Hag- 

 prd, '29). 



C. Dissection in Indiana— A.D. 1880 to 1890 



The state of Indiana has had twenty-seven medical schools 



^during its history of which one survives. Although it passed an 



latomical law in 1879, as a result of the resurrection of John 



:ott Harrison, in the neighboring state of Ohio, body snatch- 



fing was still in vogue at the turn of the century. In this year, 



^twenty-five persons were indicted for such violation and these 



included several physicians, identified with local medical colleges. 



rFifteen empty graves were found in the vicinity of Indianapolis 



and several bodies were traced to the medical schools. An editorial 



in the Medical Standard, 1902, stated that it was estimated that a 



■gang apparently led by a number of Negroes, had resurrected 



^approximately 100 bodies. At the time of the article, the real 



Iresponsibility for the affair had not been traced to its source. 



