of the other
countries named. The rule was that all bodies of persons who died in
hospital were given up for dissection if required; but, by paying the cost
of the funeral, friends could, if they wished, take away the body. This,
however, was seldom done. There was generally a sufficient supply of
bodies; but, if this ran short, the subjects were obtained from "the
deposit" of poor people who died and were buried at the public cost. In
every parish church in Italy there was a chamber in which all the dead
bodies of the poor were deposited during the day-time, after the religious
ceremonies had been performed over them in the church; at night these
bodies were removed either to the dissecting-room or to the burial-fields,
outside the town. Body-snatching was quite unknown.

* * * * *

There was an ample supply of bodies in Portugal from similar sources.
Mortality was very high amongst infants, who were put into _roda_, or
foundling cradles; the bodies of these children could be obtained without
any difficulty. In Portugal the resurrection-man did not exist.

* * * * *

In Holland there was no lack of material for teaching anatomy, and for
students to learn operative surgery on the dead body. The Dissecting
School at Leyden was supplied from the civil hospitals at Amsterdam. There
was no prejudice against dissection in Holland; in all the principal towns
lectures on anatomy were publicly given, and dissected subjects were
exhibited. Here, again, exhumation was not necessary, and was unknown.

* * * * *

In the United States the laws relating to anatomy varied very considerably
in the different States; there was no regular supply for the schools, and,
consequently, subjects had to be obtained by the aid of resurrection-men.
In Philadelphia and Baltimore, the two great Medical Schools of the United
States in those days, the supply of bodies was obtained almost entirely
from the "Potter's Field," the burial-place of the poorest classes. This
exhumation was carried on by an understanding with the authorities that
the men employed by the schools in this work should not be interfered
with. Dissection in the United States was, as in this country, looked upon
with great aversion; this was, no doubt, mainly owing to the fact that the
bodies used for this purpose were obtained from the graves.

CHAPTER IV.

The Diary of a R