equested to open her breast and exhibit to the students the
formation and functions of the heart. She was lying on her back, on a
long narrow table, around which the students stood gazing at her fair
proportions. Some reflected in sorrow that so beautiful and lovely a
being should die and be conveyed to the dissecting-room; while others
joked and laughed in a light unfeeling manner. When about to make an
incision with the sharp glittering steel in my hand, for the first
time since I had graduated, I confessed that my nerves were too much
affected by the sight of the subject to proceed, and I begged my
friends to be patient a few minutes, during which I would doubtless
regain my accustomed composure.

"'What was her name?' I inquired of the friend who had accosted me on
my entrance.

"'Haven't you heard?' said he, smiling--'I thought you all knew her.
Nearly every person in the city has heard of her, for she was the most
celebrated and notorious "fallen angel" in the city--celebrated for
her unrivalled beauty and many triumphs, and notorious for her
heartless deceit and reckless disregard of her own welfare. She has
led captive many an unguarded swain by a passing smile in the street,
and then unceremoniously deserted him to join some drunken and beastly
party in an obscure and degraded alley.'

"'Her name--what was her name?' I again asked, once more taking up the
knife, my nerves sufficiently braced by the above recital.

"'Anne R____,' he replied; 'I thought,' he continued, 'no one could be
ignorant of her name, after hearing a description of her habits.'

"'_All_ of us,' I continued, rallying, 'are not familiar with the
persons and names of the "fallen angels" about town. But let us look
at her face.' Saying this, I endeavoured to lift the white cloth from
her head, but finding that the resurrectionist had tied a cord tightly
round the muslin enclosing her neck and head, I desisted.

"'Her face is in keeping with her body and limbs,' said my merry
friend; 'she was a perfect beauty. I have seen her in Chestnut Street
every fair day for the last six months, until she got drunk and fell
in the fire.'

"I now proceeded to business, but my flesh quivered as my knife
penetrated the smooth fair breast of the subject. Soon the skin and
the flesh were removed, and the saw grated harshly as it severed the
ribs. When the heart was exposed, all bent forward instinctively,
scanning it minutely, and seemingly with a curios