An Unexpected Change of "Subjects"

by Judge Clark

We were all three medical students—Ned Williams, Charley Barker, and myself.

We had reached a point in our studies at which the possession of an anatomical “subject” became an important desideratum. But how to get one, there was the rub. Very few people died in Ploddersdale, and as those who did were mostly patients of our worthy preceptor, “the Doctor,” upon we depended to act as “Demonstrator,” and who, we were sure, would never consent to “go back,” in death, on those who had trusted him in life, the difficulties in the way of attaining our object seemed well-nigh insuperable.

But at last an opportunity offered. A man without friends or known relatives was to be hanged for murder. By means of a little well-bestowed flattery, and the promise of our votes for a second term, we succeeded in ingratiating ourselves with the Sheriff; and finally, after a good deal of persuasion, induced that official to promise us the convict’s body at the earliest practical moment after the breath should be out of it; not but we could have secured our prize anyhow—for there was Tim. Brady, the Doctor’s man, who, for what he would have called a “raisonable picayunery considheration,” stood ready to place his national proficiency in the use of the spade at our disposal any hour of the day or night. But with a view to certain contemplated galvanic experiments, it was desirable to obtain possession of the subject before rigidity set in; and… Read More