USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 30
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" Adjourned to meet Friday at five P.M. at same place. " JOHN B. ROBERTS, " Secretary.
" At a meeting of the Association, February 9, 1883, it was resolved that a committee be appointed to present the bill (as then perfected) to the Legislature, to consist of one representative from each school,-viz., Agnew. Brinton, Thomas, Parish, Oliver, Mears, Garretson, Keen, Janney. and Roberts. By resolution of that committee, Dr. Leidy was made Chair- man ex officio.
"Furman Sheppard, Esq., put the act in legal form and charged a fee of fifty dollars.
" This State law in Pennsylvania legalizing dissection was passed finally on June 4, 1883. Its passage met serious and able opposition in both Houses. I firmly believe that had I not been connected with and prosecuted in this pioneer resurrection case in Brookville, I would not have been impelled to propose such a law or to champion it in the Senate. As introduced by Senator Reyburn, the title was, 'Senate bill 117, entitled An Act for the pro- motion of medical science, by the distribution and use of unclaimed human bodies for scientific purposes, through a board created for that purpose, and to prevent unauthorized uses and traffic in human bodies.' This State law was incepted and originated in the late residence of Professor W. H. Pan- coast, Eleventh and Walnut Streets."
The petition of Dr. Keen was addressed to senators and members, as follows :
"To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
" The petition of the undersigned respectfully shows that they present herewith the draft of ' An Act for the Promotion of Medical Science by the Distribution and use of Unclaimed Human Bodies for Scientific Purposes, through a Board created for that Purpose, and to prevent Unauthorized Uses and Traffic in Human Bodies,' which they pray your honorable bodies to enact into a law for the following reasons :
" It will increase the necessary facilities for medical education within this State, and will materially aid in preventing desecration of burial-grounds. Your petitioners do not deem it necessary to argue the point that the repeated
302
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
dissection of the human body is necessary before any student of medicine should be allowed to take charge of the health and lives of the community. No woman in childbirth, no person the victim of accident, no sufferer from disease, is safe in the hands of men ignorant of the structure of the human body.
" The only proper method to supply this knowledge is to furnish by law the bodies of those who have no friends or relatives whose feelings could be wounded by their dissection. This was done by the Anatomy Act of 1867. But this Act is defective in that its application is limited to the counties of Philadelphia and Allegheny, and an adequate supply of unclaimed dead human bodies is not furnished, and it does not provide specifically the machinery for an equitable distribution of the dead bodies so given for dissection.
" In the Session of 1881-82 there were in the Dissecting and Operative Surgery Classes of the Philadelphia Medical and Dental Colleges 1493 stu- dents. Each student pursues his studies in anatomy during two years. If he be allowed to dissect one-half of one body a year-including also the practice of operations upon the same-this would require 746 dead bodies. The professors would need for their lectures about fifty more, making in all 796 ' subjects.' But during that same session the number actually avail- able for use from all sources was only 405. This is only one-half of the smallest number reasonable, to say nothing of the desirableness of a larger number to afford all the facilities a great Commonwealth should give its citizens, who can obtain their needful knowledge in no other way that is lawful.
" That it is 'needful' one will readily see when it is remembered that the want of such knowledge renders doctors liable to suits for malpractice, which suits are upon the calendar of well-nigh every court of the State. The scanty supply is due to the fact that the unclaimed dead of one county are the only ones that are given for dissection, although the students come from all parts of this State in large numbers, as well as from other parts of this and other countries. (The present law, it is true, applies to Allegheny County, but this is practically of no use to the Philadelphia Colleges.)
" During the ten years, 1873-1883, at the Jefferson Medical College and the University of Pennsylvania alone, out of a total number of over ten thou- sand students, there were 2686 from Pennsylvania; of this number, 1172 were from Philadelphia and 1514 from other parts of the State. In view of these important facts it would seem but just that the unclaimed and uncared- for dead who must be a burden upon the taxpayers of the several counties of the State for burial, should be given to the medical schools to supply this urgent need for dissecting material by students from every county in the State.
" And your petitioners will ever pray, etc."
303
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
This petition was signed by the following physicians :
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
William Pepper, M.D., Joseph Leidy, M.D., James Tyson, M.D., Theo- dore G. Wormley, M.D., D. Hayes Agnew, M.D., William Goodell, M.D .. John Ashhurst, Jr., M.D., H. C. Wood, M.D., R. A. F. Penrose, M.D., Alfred Stillé, M.D., Harrison Allen, M.D., Charles T. Hunter, M.D.
JEFFERSON MEDICAL COLLEGE
S. D. Gross, M.D., Ellerslie Wallace, M.D., J. M. DaCosta, M.D., Wm. H. Pancoast, M.D., Robert E. Rogers, M.D., Roberts Bartholow, M.D., Henry C. Chapman, M.D., J. H. Brinton, M.D., S. W. Gross, M.D.
PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS
W. W. Keen, M.D.
MEDICO-CHIRURGICAL COLLEGE OF PHILADELPHIA
George P. Oliver, M.D., George E. Stubbs, M.D., Charles L. Mitchell, M.D., Abraham S. Gerhard, M.D., Wm. S. Stewart, M.D., Frank O. Nagle, M.D., Wm. F. Waugh, M.D.
HAHNEMANN MEDICAL COLLEGE
A. R. Thomas, M.D., Lemuel Stephens, M.D., O. B. Gause, M.D., E. A. Farrington, M.D., B. F. Betts, M.D., Pemberton Dudley, M.D., W. C. Goodno, M.D., Charles M. Thomas, M.D., John E. James, M.D., Charles Mohr, M.D., R. B. Weaver, M.D., J. N. Mitchell, M.D., W. H. Keim, M.D.
PHILADELPHIA SCHOOL OF ANATOMY
John B. Roberts, M.D.
WOMAN'S MEDICAL COLLEGE OF PENNSYLVANIA
James B. Walker, M.D., Rachel L. Bodley, M.D., Benj. B. Wilson, M.D., William H. Parrish, M.D., Anna E. Broomall, M.D., Clara Marshall, M.D., Emilie B. Du Bois, M.D.
PENNSYLVANIA COLLEGE OF DENTAL SURGERY
T. L. Buckingham, D.D.S., J. Ewing Mears, M.D., C. N. Peirce, D.D.S., Henry C. Chapman, M.D., W. F. Litch, D.D.S.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
PHILADELPHIA POLYCLINIC AND COLLEGE FOR GRADUATES IN MEDICINE
R. J. Levis, M.D., Thos. G. Morton, M.D., J. Solis Cohen, M.D., George C. Harlan, M.D., Henry Leffman, M.D., Edward O. Shakespeare, M.D., James Cornelius Wilson, M.D., John B. Roberts, M.D., Charles H. Burnett, M.D., Arthur Van Harlingen, M.D., Charles K. Mills, M.D., Edward L. Duer, M.D., J. Henry C. Simes, M.D.
PHILADELPHIA COUNTY MEDICAL SOCIETY
" This petition was presented to the Philadelphia County Medical Society and unanimously ordered to be signed by the officers."
Resolutions endorsing the new law and petition were passed by the County Medical Societies throughout the State.
" The act as passed and approved reads as follows,-viz. :
"' NO. 106. AN ACT FOR THE PROMOTION OF MEDICAL SCIENCE BY THE DIS- TRIBUTION AND USE OF UNCLAIMED HUMAN BODIES FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES THROUGH A BOARD CREATED FOR THAT PURPOSE, AND TO PRE- VENT UNAUTHORIZED USES AND TRAFFIC IN HUMAN BODIES
"'SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc., That the professors of anatomy, the professors of surgery, the demonstrators of anatomy, and the demonstrators of surgery of the medical and dental schools and colleges of this Common- wealth, which are now or may hereafter become incorporated, together with one representative from each of the unincorporated schools of anatomy or practical surgery, within this Commonwealth, in which there are from time to time, at the time of the appointment of such representatives, not less than five scholars, shall be and hereby are constituted a board for the distribu- tion and delivery of dead human bodies, hereinafter described, to and among such persons as, under the provisions of this act, are entitled thereto. The professor of anatomy in the University of Pennsylvania, at Philadelphia, shall call a meeting of said board for organization at a time and place to be fixed by him within thirty days after the passage of this act. The said board shall have full power to establish rules and regulations for its government, and to appoint and remove proper officers, and shall keep full and complete minutes of its transactions ; and records shall also be kept under its direction of all bodies received and distributed by said board, and of the persons to whom the same may be distributed, which minutes and records shall be open at all times to the inspection of each member of said board, and of any district attorney of any county within this Commonwealth.
"' SECTION 2. All public officers, agents, and servants, and all officers, agents, and servants of any and every county, city, township, borough, dis- trict, and other municipality, and of any and every almshouse, prison, morgue,
20
305
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
hospital, or other public institution having charge or control over dead human bodies, required to be buried at the public expense, are hereby required to notify the said board of distribution, or such person or persons as may, from time to time, be designated by said board as its duly authorized officer or agent, whenever any such body or bodies come into his or their possession, charge, or control; and shall, without fee or reward, deliver such body or bodies, and permit and suffer the said board and its agents, and the physicians and surgeons from time to time designated by them, who may comply with the provisions of this act, to take and remove all such bodies to be used within this State for the advancement of medical science; but no such notice need be given nor shall any such body be delivered if any person claiming to be and satisfying the authorities in charge of said body that he or she is of kindred or is related by marriage to the deceased, shall claim the said body for burial, but it shall be surrendered for interment, nor shall the notice be given or body delivered if such deceased person was a traveller who died suddenly, in which case the said body shall be buried.
"' SECTION 3. The said board or their duly authorized agent may take and receive such bodies so delivered as aforesaid, and shall, upon receiving them, distribute and deliver them to and among the schools, colleges, physi- cians, and surgeons aforesaid, in manner following: Those bodies needed for lectures and demonstrations by the said schools and colleges incorporated and unincorporated shall first be supplied; the remaining bodies shall then be distributed proportionately and equitably, preference being given to said schools and colleges, the number assigned to each to be based upon the num- ber of students in each dissecting or operative surgery class, which number shall be reported to the board at such times as it may direct. Instead of receiving and delivering said bodies themselves, or through their agents or servants, the board of distribution may, from time to time, either directly or by their authorized officer or agent, designate physicians and surgeons who shall receive them, and the number which each shall receive : Provided always, however, That schools and colleges incorporated and unincorporated, and physicians or surgeons of the county where the death of the person or persons described takes place, shall be preferred to all others : And provided also, That for this purpose such dead body shall be held subject to their order in the county where the death occurs for a period not less than twenty-four hours.
"' SECTION 4. The said board may employ a carrier or carriers for the conveyance of said bodies, which shall be well enclosed within a suitable encasement, and carefully deposited free from public observation. Said carrier shall obtain receipts by name, or if the person be unknown by a descrip- tion of each body delivered by him, and shall deposit said receipt with the secretary of the said board.
"' SECTION 5. No school, college, physician, or surgeon shall be allowed or permitted to receive any such body or bodies until a bond shall have been
306
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
given to the Commonwealth by such physician or surgeon, or by or in behalf of such school or college, to be approved by the prothonotary of the court of common pleas in and for the county in which such physician or surgeon shall reside, or in which such school or college may be situate, and to be filed in the office of said prothonotary, which bond shall be in the penal sum of one thou- sand dollars, conditioned that all such bodies which the said physician or surgeon, or the said school or college shall receive thereafter shall be used only for the promotion of medical science within this State; and whosoever shall sell or buy such body or bodies, or in any way traffic in the same, or shall transmit or convey or cause or procure to be transmitted or conveyed said body or bodies, to any place outside of this State, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall, on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars, or be imprisoned for a term not exceeding one year.
"'SECTION 6. Neither the Commonwealth nor any county or munici- pality, nor any officer, agent, or servant thereof, shall be at any expense by reason of the delivery or distribution of any such body; but all the expenses thereof and of said board of distribution shall be paid by those receiving the bodies, in such manner as may be specified by said board of distribution, or otherwise agreed upon.
"'SECTION 7. That any person having duties enjoined upon him by the provisions of this act who shall neglect, refuse, or omit to perform the same as hereby required, shall, on conviction thereof, be liable to fine of not less than one hundred nor more than five hundred dollars for each offence.
"'SECTION 8. That all acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act be and the same are hereby repealed.
"'Approved-the 13th day of June, A.D. 1883. " ' ROBERT E. PATTISON.'
" In debate in the Senate, the above law was ably opposed by Senators Laird, Lee, and Stewart, and its passage was advocated by Senators Rey- burn, Grady, Patton, and McKnight.
" In closing this narrative I quote a paragraph from my remarks in the Senate in support of the passage of the law and in reply to the speeches of other senators:
"' Where would the humanity exist then, especially that kind of which so much is said in regard to the dead? Humanity, I think, should first be shown to the living, and the Great Physician, whom senators quote on this floor as having had a regard for humanity, said, "Let the dead bury the dead." He took the same practical view that humanity should be practised for the living. We take a harsh view as medical men in regard to the dis- section of dead bodies. We consider subjects just as clay. I know this is repugnant to the common idea of mankind, but it is the true idea. It is the idea that will enable a medical man to be of sound, practical good, profes-
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
sionally, in the world. For the crushed, relief in life is the great object, not relief after death. We have nothing to do with that. Beautiful poetry and nice homilies can be delivered here by senators about death, but it is the living that we want to be humane to and not the dead, and if it requires the dissection of ninety-nine dead persons to relieve one living sufferer, I would dissect the ninety-nine dead persons and relieve the one living person. Other senators here would have us do just the reverse of that. I repeat, Mr. Presi- dent, this measure is in the interest of the laboring man; it is in the interest of the mechanic; it is in the interest of science; it is in the interest of the poor the world over; it is in the interest of the man who gets torn and lacerated in our mines and workshops, and who is too poor to travel to Philadelphia for his surgical aid. Enact this law, and the young man can go from Allegheny, from Jefferson, and from Armstrong Counties to Phila- delphia, and he can legally take the human body, which is the A B C of all medical knowledge, and he can dissect it there, and learn by that means just where each artery is, and where each vein is, and where the different muscles lie and the different relations they sustain to one another, and then he is qualified to return to Allegheny or Jefferson County, locate at the cross- roads or in the village, and perform the operations that are so much needed there for the relief of suffering humanity and the suffering poor.
"'You all know that the surgeons of Philadelphia are famous, not only in Philadelphia, but throughout the world, and why? It is because they have studied the anatomy of the human body so thoroughly and so perfectly.
"' We must have anatomical dissections. No man learns anatomy in any other way in the world than through anatomical dissections. Pictures, models, and manikins won't do. He must not only dissect one body, but he must dissect a large number of bodies. He cannot dissect too many, neither can he dissect too often; therefore humanity requires that this dissection be legalized and go on.
"' Of course, we must have some regard for the sentiment of the living, and to respect that, we, in this bill, only ask that the unclaimed bodies of paupers be given to the medical colleges, not the bodies of those having friends. No body can be taken if any one objects.' "
For the law the yeas were, in the Senate: Adams, Arnholt, Biddis, Cooper, Coxe, Davies, Grady, Hall, Hess, Humes, Keefer, Lantz, Longe- necker, McCracken, MacFarlane, McKnight, Patton, Reyburn, Shearer, Sill, Smith, Sutton, Vandegrift, Upperman, Wagner, Wallace, Watres, and Wol- verton-28.
Nays : Agnew, Herr, Laird, Lee, Ross, Stehman, and Stewart-7.
We have now, in 1904, legalized dissection of the human body in nearly every State of the Union, and, as a result, the skill of the physician in the future " shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall stand in admiration."
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
POPULATION OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA AND OF THE UNITED STATES FROM 1790 TO 1850 INCLUSIVE
Year
Whites
Free Colored
Negro Slaves
Total in Pennsylvania
Population in the United States
1790
424,099
6,537
3,737
434,373
3,929,827
1800
586,098
14,561
1,706
602,365
5,305,94I
1810
786,704
22,492
795
810,09I
7,239,814
1820
1,017,094
32,153
2II
1,049,458
9,638,191
1830
1,309,900
37,930
403
1,348,233
12,866,020
1840
1,676,115
47,854
64
1,724,033
17,069,453
1850
2,258,160
53,626
2,311,786
23,191,876
RATIO OF REPRESENTATION IN THE UNITED STATES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
From 1789 to 1793 as provided by the United States Constitution
66
1793
1803 based on the United States Census of 1790
1800
1813 " 1823
66
66
66
66
1810
35,000
66
1823 “ 1833
60
66
66
66
1820
40,000
66
I833 1843
66
..
66
1840
70,680
1853 " 1863
66
66
850
93,420
66
1863 " 1873 66
66
66
66
1860
127,381
1803 " 1813
66
66
66
66
1830
47,700
1843 “ 1853
" From the first Congress, in 1789, inclusive, until March 4, 1795, Senators and Representatives received each six dollars per diem, and six dollars for every twenty miles' travel. From March 4, 1795, to March 4, 1796, Senators received seven dollars, and Representatives six dollars per diem. From March 4, 1796, until December 4, 1815, the per diem was six dollars, and the mileage six dollars, to Senators and Representatives. From Decem- ber 4, 1815, until March 4, 1817, each Senator and Representative received one thousand five hundred dollars per annum, with a proportional deduction for absence, from any cause but sickness. The President of the Senate pro tempore, and Speaker of the House, three thousand dollars per annum, each. From March 4, 1817, the compensation to members of both Houses has been eight dollars per diem, and eight dollars for every twenty miles' travel; and to the President of the Senate pro tempore, and Speaker of the House, six- teen dollars per diem, until 1860."
309
30,000
33,000
33,000
CHAPTER XVI
WHITE SLAVERY-ORIGIN-NATURE IN ROME, GREECE, AND EUROPE-AFRICAN SLAVERY IN PENNSYLVANIA-GEORGE BRYAN-PIONEER COLORED SETTLER IN JEFFERSON COUNTY-CENSUS, ETC .- DAYS OF BONDAGE IN JEFFERSON COUNTY AND THE NORTHWEST
WHITE slavery is older than history. Its origin is supposed to have been from kidnapping, piracy, and in captives taken in war. Christians enslaved all barbarians and barbarians enslaved Christians. Early history tells us that Rome and Greece were great markets for all kinds of slaves, slave-traders, slave-owners, etc. The white slaves of Europe were mostly obtained in Russia and Poland in times of peace. All fathers could sell children. The poor could be sold for debt. The poor could sell themselves. But slavery did not exist in the poor and ignorant alone. The most learned in science, art, and mechanism were bought and sold at prices ranging in our money from one hundred to three hundred dollars. Once sold, whether kidnapped or not, there was no redress, except as to the will of the master. At one time in the history of Rome white slaves sold for sixty-two and a half cents apiece in our money. These were captives taken in battle. By law the mini- mum price was eighty dollars. A good actress would sell for four thousand and a good physician for eleven thousand dollars. The state, the church, and individuals all owned slaves. Every wicked device that might and power could practise was used to enslave men and women without regard to nation- ality or color. And when enslaved, no matter how well educated, the slaves possessed no right in law and were not deemed persons in law, and had no right in and to their children. Slavery as it existed among the Jews was a milder form than that which existed in any other nation. The ancients regarded black slaves as luxuries, because there was but little traffic in them until about the year 1441, and it was at that date that the modern African slave-trade was commenced by the Portuguese. The pioneer English African slave-trader was Sir John Hawkins. Great companies were formed in London to carry on African traffic, of which Charles II. and James II. were members. It was money and the large profits in slavery, whether white or black, that gave it such a hold on church and state. The English were the most cruel African slave-traders. Genuine white slavery never survived in what is now the United States. In the year A.D. 1620 the pioneer African slaves were landed at Hampton Roads in Virginia, and nineteen slaves were sold. In
310
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
1790 there were six hundred and ninety-seven thousand six hundred and eighty-one African slaves in the Middle States.
Slavery was introduced in Pennsylvania in 1681, and was in full force until the act quoted below for its gradual abolition was enacted in 1780, by which, as will be seen, adult slaves were liberated on July 4, 1827, and the children born before that date were to become free as they reached their majority. This made the last slave in the State become a free person about 1860.
In 1790 Pennsylvania had slaves
3737
In 1800
66
66
1706
In 1810
..
795
In 1820 ..
2II
In 1830 ..
66
403
In 1840 66
66
..
64
On December 4, 1833, sixty persons met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and organized the American Anti-Slavery Society.
NEGRO SLAVERY
" He found his fellow guilty-of a skin not colored like his own; for such a cause dooms him as his lawful prey."
Negro slaves were held in each of the thirteen original States.
NUMBER OF SLAVES IN THE ORIGINAL THIRTEEN STATES IN 1776
Massachusetts
3,500
Maryland 80,000
Rhode Island
4,337
Virginia 165,000
Connecticut
6,000
North Carolina 75,000
New Hampshire
629
South Carolina 1 10,000
New York.
10,000
Georgia 16,000
Pennsylvania
10,000
New Jersey
7,600
Total 497,066
Delaware
9,000
In March, 1780, Pennsylvania enacted her gradual abolition law. Massa- chusetts, by constitutional enactment in 1780, abolished slavery. Rhode Island and Connecticut were made free States in 1784, New Jersey in 1804, New York in 1817, and New Hampshire about 1808 or 1810. The remaining States of the thirteen-viz., Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia-each retained their human chattels until the close of the Civil War. In one hundred years, from 1676 until 1776, it is estimated that three million people were imported and sold as slaves in the United States.
As late as 1860 there was still one slave in Pennsylvania; his name was Lawson Lee Taylor, and he belonged to James Clark, of Donegal Township, Lancaster County.
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