APPENDIX D.

The Committee appointed at the last meeting of the commissioners of Emigration, to enquire and report in relation to certain abuses, alleged to have taken place, as to the bodies of persons who have died in the Hospital and Refuge at Ward's Island,

RESPECTFULLY REPORT:

That on the morning after their appointment, they went to Ward's Island, and spent the greater part of the day in examining into the several matters understood to be included in the enquiry given in charge to them; after conferring with the warden, and enquiring as to all matters which had fallen within his observation or knowledge, touching the treatment of the bodies of those who died in the establishment under his care, they proceeded to examine Drs. Hosack, McNeven and Cox, who were in attendance, the first as visiting surgeon, and the others as physicians, and afterwards separately Dr. Carnochan, one of the surgeons; they also examined separately the clerk of the Hospital, the sexton who had charge of the dead house, and an assistant, also two persons employed on Randall's Island, in the burying ground, where persons dying on this island are interred.

These were questioned apart, and as closely as could be done where there was no power to secure any but voluntary testimony, or to compel attendance. There was however amongst those who appeared, but one instance of refusal to answer any question, and that (on the part of the clerk,) referred only collaterally to the main subjects of enquiry.

The bodies of persons dying in the establishment at Ward's Island, are placed in plain but substantial separate coffins of stained wood, and then carried to the dead house, a secure building near the bank of the inlet or narrow rocky channel separating Ward's Island from Randall's Island, where the public burying ground of the city, (known

as Potter's field,) is situated. The building and its contents are under the charge of the sexton, and of the clerk of the hospital, nor can any body be removed thence without their knowledge, nor to any place except that of the intended interment without a violation of the rules prescribed by this Board. The new by-laws and regulations passed by this Board some weeks ago, have given additional security in this matter, by positively requiring the signature of the physician who attended the case, to the certificate issued by the clerk, a provision in conformity with the law of the State, which though always directed heretofore to be followed has for some time past been neglected, the clerk having given certificates with his own signature only, and the keeper of Potters Field (so far as it appeared,) receiving them without objection.

When the bodies have been received at Potter's field, the control and responsibility of the Board ceases entirely, and they are then under the charge of the proper authorities at Randall's Island.

The committee directed their enquiries, first, as to the taking of bodies for the purpose of dissection, that being one of the chief points of complaint.

Dissection in its ordinary acceptation as well as in its strict professional sense, is understood to mean the cutting up and examining bodies for anatomical study, the bodies being commonly taken to some dissecting room, and all the parts separately laid open.

Upon the fullest examination and enquiry, your committee cannot find that any such use has been made of the body of any person who has died at Ward's Island, and if any such case has occurred it must have been after the body had been duly delivered at Potter's field, and by the neglect or connivance of the persons employed there, over whom this board has no control.

There is no place at Ward's Island where any such dissection could be made without publicity, and the knowledge of the officers and employees and the evidence was to us conclusive, that no dissection of that nature had been made on the island, and that nobody had been taken or sent from there except to Randall's Island, or delivered to the care of friends.

As to the care of bodies after interment at Randall's Island, the committee had no sufficient means of enquiry, the keeper of Potter's