“I hurried back to Philadelphia, and strove to mitigate my grief in the vortex of unrestrained dissipation.  I lavished my gold on undeserving and unthankful objects.  I cared not for life, much less for fortune.  I was the victim of a frenzy that rendered me reckless, and bereft me of calm meditation.  My frantic laughter was heard at the gaming-table, and my plaudits were boisterous at the theatre, but I was a stranger to enjoyment.  There was no pleasure for me.  My brawling companions swore I was the happiest and noblest being on earth.  But I knew too well there was not a more miserable fiend in hell.

“At length disease fortunately arrested my demoniac career before my wealth was expended.  It was my good fortune to secure the services of a distinguished and skillful physician.  He was a benevolent and universally esteemed Quaker.  His attention was not only constant, but soothing and parental.  His earnest and tender tones often made me weep.  When I recovered, I resolved to amend my life.  This friend had applied a healing balm to my aching heart.  I determined to prosecute my profession, and before a year elapsed my exertions began to be crowned with success.

“I was a frequent attendant at the lectures, and on terms of the closest intimacy with the professors.  Indeed, I had a prospect of a professorship myself.  I devoted my attention particularly to the anatomical department of my studies, which I preferred; and it was in this department of the institution that I would probably be installed in a few months.  The gentleman who occupied that chair was about to resign, and, being my friend, used his influence to procure my election.

“My medical friend invited me one evening to be present at a dissection, which promised to be one of extreme interest.  He described the subject as one that had elicited the admiration of the class.  He said it was a female of perfect proportions, but who had recently been an inmate of a brothel of the lowest description.  She had, in a state of beastly inebriation, fallen into the fire.  Yet, with the exception of a small but fatal orifice in the side, her form and features remained unaltered.  I consented to meet him at the hour appointed, and made my arrangements accordingly.

“That evening there were many more persons in the dissecting-room than usual.  I had now become much more cheerful, and enjoyed the frank greetings of my many friends with a relish and an ardour that had hitherto been unknown to me.  Many flippant remarks and careless observations were exchanged in relation to the business before us.  We had become accustomed to such scenes, and habit had rendered us callous to the reflections and impressions generally produced when gazing upon the cold lineaments of the dead.  Dissection was an indispensable act.  It had been resorted to under the deliberate conviction that it was necessary to the perfection of science, and in a great degree redounded to the welfare and preservation of the living.  To us the pale inanimate limbs, and the attenuated, insensible bodies of the dead brought no disagreeable sensations.  We cut and sawed them with the same composed indifference with which the sculptor hews the marble.