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Irish Surgeon Becomes America’s Leading Body Snatcher
A 40-year-old man was taken to Saint Steevens’s Hospital today after being thrown by a horse and, upon landing, hitting his head on a wall 18 days ago. Dr. Samuel Clossy, who studied at Edinburgh University under the renowned surgeon William Hunter, decided to cut a hole into the man’s skull to expose the brain.…
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Feuding Founders of First US Medical School
The early years of the nation’s first medical school did not go smoothly. Not at all. The medical school, now the Perelman School of Medicine, was founded under the auspices of the College of Philadelphia, which would eventually become the University of Pennsylvania. The first class of medical students started classes on Thursday, November, 14,…
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When the Publick Rose Up Against Its Doctors, Part 2
Ah, the contemptible Mr. Hicks. Little is known about John Hicks, the perpetrator of the act that led to the Doctor’s Riot of 1788. Hicks is said to have looked out a window of the anatomy lab on April 13 and seen some children playing outside. He waved the amputated arm of a cadaver at…
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When the Publick Rose Up Against Its Doctors, Part 1
Donora’s heroic physicians during the smog of 1948 learned their trade long after medical education had recovered from the destructive effects of the so-called “Doctor’s Riot of 1788.” The event was a bloody post-revolutionary protest against medical students in New York City stealing corpses to study anatomy. The incident ravaged
