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H. Hamlin, MD
Providence, RI Boston

JAMA. 1968;204(1):79.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor:—

Apparently the personal communication of J. B. Blake to H. F. Dowling, MD, (202: 1132, 1967) who cited a Massachusetts law passed in 1831 as "the first in the English-speaking world" which purported to legalize a supply of cadavers for medical dissection is open to question.

An 1824 statute was passed by the Connecticut legislature to place the bodies of deceased prisoners and capital offenders at the disposal of professors at the Yale Medical School "to be used for the purpose of advancing medical science." Although amended several times, the current law includes the original section that requires a teacher of anatomy to post a bond of $1,000 as a guarantee of nonviolation. Dr. Dowling mentioned a New Haven fracas over graverobbing in 1820. He refers to the Yale dissection riot of Jan 12, 1824 (Yale J Biol Med 7:276, 1935). This event instigated the initial . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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