DARTMOUTH UNDYING

In the Valley graveyards long ago, where the ghosts of defunct bodies flew, some medical students dug deep for knowledge. The drawing accompanies a list of Dartmouth Medical School graduates in the 1878 Aegis. It illustrates a ghoulish reputation that once plagued the College, according to Carleton Chapman, author of Dartmouth Medical School: TheFirst 175 Years.

Early 1800s

Isolated from corpse-rich Boston, the school suffers a dearth of cadavers. One scholar, E.D. Cushing, is indicted by a grand jury and fined $25 for "raising the dead."

1826

A Dartmouth student writes to his brother that "Gilman Kimball was bound over to court, under bonds of $1,000, for digging up a subject in Lyme."

1895

Shortly after John P. Gifford accepts honors as valedictorian at the Medical School's commencement, he and fellow student Jack McDonnell are arrested and charged with robbing the grave of a suicide victim in Norwich. Both plead guilty in Windsor County Court and are fined $2,000 and $1,500.

1988

The school acquires its yearly quota of 40 cadavers through local donations, according to June Vance, academic assistant in the Anatomy Department. "We send forms that people complete to be registered as potential body donors," she says. And as Halloween looms, Upper Valley cemeteries rest in peace.