Life and Character of Richard CarlileHolyoake, George Jacob
History
Life and Character of Richard Carlile
Holyoake, George Jacob
Carlile, Richard, 1790-1843
The well-known Mr. Richard Carlile, bookseller, late of Fleet Street,
bequeathed his body for the purpose of anatomical dissection. By
permission of the governors of St. Thomas’s Hospital, his remains were
removed from his residence in Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, to that
Institution; and, on Tuesday last, there was a numerous assemblage of
the friends of the deceased and members of the medical profession, to
witness his post mortem examination. The chest and abdomen only were
opened, and the necessity that existed for the knowledge of anatomy, not
only to the surgeon, but to the physician, was shown. Mr. Grainger
delivered a short address on the occasion, thinking that the object of
the deceased would be obtained by this proceeding in public, and by a
statement of the motives which, had actuated him in giving his remains
for dissection.
The illustrious Bentham, actuated by the same benevolent feeling, had at
the close of the last century, left his body for dissection, and that at
a time when the prejudice against anatomical examinations was so great
that bodies were procured with the utmost difficulty. That prejudice was
perhaps less at the present time, but still sufficiently strong to
interfere very materially with that due supply of subjects, so essential
to the proper education of the medical student, and of such vital
importance to the community at large. Such difficulties existed that no
lecturer in this country had ever yet been able to complete a course of
operative surgery, properly so called. Mr. Carlile deserved the
approbation of all the friends of humanity for attempting to remove this
prejudice by leaving his remains for anatomical purposes.
Mr. Grainger vindicated medical men from the charge of irreligion, and
contended that medical and anatomical studies, if _properly_ pursued,
served to demonstrate the truth, not only of natural, but of revealed
religion. _The Lancet,_ No. 1,016, p. 774, February 18, 1843.
J. Watson, Printer, 3, Queen’s Head Passage, Paternoster Row.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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