[XX] 



STATUS OF HUMAN DISSECTION IN THE 

 UNITED STATES-A.D. 1900 to 1958 



A, 



.natomical teaching in the United States has probably been 

 subject to more alterations during the past half-century than has 

 that in the medical schools of any other nation. These changes 

 have involved the subject of gross anatomy, which is dependent 

 almost entirely, or at least basically, upon an adequate supply 

 of suitable cadavers. In considering the evolution of this specialty 

 in American medicine, the following factors can be enumerated: 



1. The impact of standardizing agencies. 



2. The number of anatomical departments and medical stu- 

 dents existing from year to year. 



3. The demand, from various sources, for cadavers (medi- 

 cal, dental, embalmers and others). 



4. A consideration of a rapidly expanding population. 



5. The status of anatomical laws. 



6. The growth of new subjects in the medical curriculum. 



7. The general attitude of the public towards dissection. 



In order to draw comparisons, a picture of the status of ana- 

 tomical teaching in this country, shortly before 1900, is briefly 

 ^resented. With a few notable exceptions, the medical schools 

 ^vhich existed were of the fly-by-night variety. Classes were held 

 in rudimentary buildings possessing the poorest of laboratories. 

 Any young physician could route out statutes for a proposed medi- 

 cal school in the form of a stock corporation. All that was neces- 

 sary, was to elect a council of administration, request state author- 

 ities to inscribe a new creation in official registers and issue a pros- 

 pectus for publication in medical periodicals, with a list of profes- 

 sors, who the day before might have been simple and unknown 

 physicians. Diplomas were granted at the end of two years and 



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