The medical annals of Maryland, 1799-1899 : prepared for the centennial of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty / by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D.
- Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell
- Date:
- 1903
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The medical annals of Maryland, 1799-1899 : prepared for the centennial of the Medical and Chirurgical Faculty / by Eugene Fauntleroy Cordell, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.
23/968 page 15
![visions, which were designed to apply to the present as well as the future. All physicians were to submit to examination and license. It is not surprising to learn from its author that many objected to this proposal. The communication concluded with the statement that they were “surrounded by swarms of quacks.” The result of the meeting was that a petition was prepared for presentation to the Legislature and put in circu- lation in the town and State for the signature of citizens. About this time the body of one Cassiday, who had been executed for murder, was taken by force from the students of anatomy, to whom it had been given for dissection, by the populace of the town. Grifiith’s Annals, in which this notice occurs, contains also the following: “At the entrance of Ches- ter River, on May 17 [1788], at night, Capt. John De Corse of the packet was murdered by two ruffians he had taken on board there as passengers. The vessel was brought back to the Middle Branch [of the Patapsco] and abandoned. Pat- rick Cassiday, who had forfeited his pardon for former offenses by remaining in the State, was, with one John Webb, another convict, arrested, and they were executed some time after.” There can be little doubt that this, the scene of this first “dis- section mob’—we had a second in 1807, when Davidge’s Anatomical Theatre, on Liberty Street, was destroyed—was Dr. Wiesenthal’s “school,” situated on Fayette Street, east of Gay, in the rear of his residence. Dr. Wiesenthal was the medical teacher of the day, and he had all the conveniences for carrying on dissection. The “school,” a substantial brick building, two stories in height and about 72 x 20 feet, is still standing. Fayette Street was not opened until long after this period. The Doctor’s residence was on the southeast corner of Gay and Fayette Streets, and was pulled down about twenty- 2 rs](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31349146_0023.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
