



Produced by Chris Curnow, Martin Pettit and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)






USE OF THE DEAD

TO THE

LIVING.

FROM THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

_ALBANY_:

PRINTED BY WEBSTERS AND SKINNERS.

1827.




ADVERTISEMENT.


The following pages contain an article extracted from the Westminster
Review, an English periodical of considerable reputation. On its
appearance in Great Britain, it excited great attention; and, indeed,
has been there reprinted in a cheap form for general distribution. The
author (Dr. SOUTHWOOD SMITH) deserves the thanks of the community for
the talents he has displayed, and the lucid and powerful manner in which
he has investigated the important subject under consideration.

The editors believe that they are discharging a duty to the community in
presenting it to them for perusal and consideration. They will not
conceal their wishes, that it may have a favorable effect on a bill now
pending before the Legislature. Both in a general point of view, as well
as with reference to the particular institution to be benefitted, the
arguments are particularly applicable; nor will an enlightened body of
men be deterred from doing what they may deem their duty by the
unparalleled impudence of those who _now_ cry out against monopoly, when
they have risen into importance by monopoly, and have, always, while it
suited their views, been its most persecuting and vindictive advocates.

It is due to truth to state, that the suggestion of the republication of
this article, originated with a member of the Senate of this state, and
who does not belong to the profession.

_February, 1827._




USE OF THE DEAD TO THE LIVING.

FROM THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW.

     _An Appeal to the Public and to the Legislature, on the necessity
     of affording Dead Bodies to the Schools of Anatomy, by Legislative
     Enactment._ By WILLIAM MACKENZIE. Glasgow. 1824.


Every one desires to live as long as he can. Every one values health
"above all gold and treasure." Every one knows that as far as his own
individual good is concerned, protracted life and a frame of body sound
and strong, free from the thousand pains that flesh is heir to, are
unspeakably more important than all other objects, because life and
health must be secured before any possible result of any possible
circumstance can be of consequence to him. In the improvement of the art
which has for its object the preservation of health and life, every
individual is, therefore, deeply interested. An enlightened physician
and a skilful surgeon, are in the daily habit of administering to their
fellow men more real and unquestionable good, than is communicated, or
communicable by any other class of human beings to another. Ignorant
physicians and surgeons are the most deadly enemies of the community:
the plague itself is not so destructive; its ravages are at distant
intervals, and are accompanied with open and alarming notice of its
purpose and power; theirs are constant, silent, secret; and it is while
they are looked up to as saviours, with the confidence of hope, that
they give speed to the progress of disease and certainty to the stroke
of death.

It is deeply to be lamented that the community, in general, are so
entirely ignorant of all that relates to the art and the science of
medicine. An explanation of the functions of the animal economy; of
their most common and important deviations from the healthy state; of
the remedies best adapted to restore them to a sound condition, and of
the mode in which they operate, as far as that is known, ought to form a
part of every course of liberal education. The profound ignorance of the
people on all these subjects, is attended with many disadvantages to
themselves, and operates unfavorably on the medical character. In
consequence of this want of information, persons neither know what are
the attainments of the man in whose hands they place their life, nor
what they ought to be; they can neither form an opinion of the course of
education which it is incumbent on him to follow, nor judge of the
success with which he has availed himself of the means of knowledge
which have been afforded him. There is one branch of medical education
in particular, the foundation, in fact, on which the whole
superstructure must be raised, the necessity of which is not commonly
understood, but which requires only to be stated to be perceived.
Perhaps it is impossible to name any one subject which it is of more
importance that the community should understand. It is one in which
every man's life is deeply implicated: it is one on which every man's
ignorance or information will have a considerable influence. We shall,
therefore, enter into it with some detail: we shall show the kind of
knowledge which it is indispensable that the physician and surgeon
should possess; we shall illustrate, by a reference to particular cases,
the reason why this kind of knowledge cannot be dispensed with: and we
shall explain, by a statement of facts,