1804—24 
POST-MORTEMS 
15 
§ ostly character, and the natural awe which the 
uman corpse inspires, especially in the youthful 
damped considerably, I must confess, my 
^tdour for the acquisition of a knowledge of 
internal structure, when, the sheet having been 
'''Withdrawn from the pale, cold, collapsed features 
nf the deceased, the half-opened eyes seemed to 
^^Precate what then struck me forcibly as being 
n desecration of the sanctity of the dead. It was 
in vain that my elder fellow-pu^Dil drew my 
to the various pathological signs in the 
oracic viscera on which our master learnedly 
descanted ; my gaze would still turn to the pale 
eold features, and the glassy staring eyeballs. He 
nd been a young man, imprisoned for a term, 
nnd carried off by a rapid consumption. His was 
^ e first case that I had attended, and I had taken 
niedicine to him in the hospital. Another prisoner, 
somewhat older, had died the day after, and his 
ody was examined the same day. These 
'^nortem dissections were performed in the middle 
i^oom of the old tower, where the prison clothes 
^Gte also washed. I must say I quitted the scene 
i^'ith both appetite and ardour for science some- 
i^hat damped. 
A few fever cases had broken out in the gaol, 
^^iid I was charged to visit one that had reached a 
i^ritical height late in the evening, with medicines 
be administered if certain symptoms were pre- 
sent. On this errand I set out about nine o’clock. 
