Page:The Hunterian oration, for the year 1819.djvu/40

36 hospitals, poor-houses, and prisons, were to establish it as a regulation, that the body of any person dying in those institutions, unclaimable by immediate relatives, should be given to the surgeon of the establishment for dissection, upon his signing an obligation so to dispose of it, as to give no offence to decency or humanity, I am convinced, that it would greatly tend to the increase of anatomical knowledge amongst the members of our profession in general, and consequently to the public good. Or indeed it might be established as a law, that the body of any person of whatsoever rank or fortune, unclaimable by immediate relatives, should be subjected to dissection; and thus a great public good might be obtained, without any infringement on the equality of rights. Other and better expedients may indeed be devised; and the subject is so important as to deserve general consideration. Yet, upon mentioning the foregoing suggestions to various persons, I have been uniformly answered, that the public would