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of trauma in the Charity Hospital
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Railway worker. Continuous brow ridge
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Name, age: Mirjam Dekker, 46
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Gender: Female
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Place of Origin: Holland
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Cause of Death: Phlebitis, complicated fracture of the femur
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Prominent brow ridge, rhomboid orbits
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Name, age: Czeslaw Vogel, 26
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Gender: Male
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Place of Origin: Warsaw
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Cause of Death: Hanged
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Murderer. Dental pathology (possible abscesses)
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Name, age: Menno Kira, 24
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Gender: Male
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Place of Origin: Friesland
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Cause of Death: Gunshot wounds
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Sailor
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Name, age: Nada Sokić, 17
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Gender: Female
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Place of Origin: Croatia
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Cause of Death: Smallpox
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Mill hand. Tooth edges straight and continuous
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Name, age: Biktop Shamo, unknown
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â             Gender: Male
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Place of Origin: Krasnoe, Ukraine
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Cause of Death: Self-inflicted removal of testicles
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  Description: Member of Russian sect believing in castration. Dual left supraorbital foramina
    From time to time, he would address a question over his shoulder to where I stood leaning over his. I had to clarify the anatomical descriptions and show him the places on the skulls to which they referred. He was amazed bythe violent deaths that many of their former “owners” had suffered.
    â€œMore likely than not such men and women as these used to be were left with no one to mourn them,” he said thoughtfully. “If any did grieve, I imagine they would have done so alone, like an animal crawling off into the bushes to give birth or to die.”
    I nodded and, despite my affectation of nonchalance, I felt the corners of my mouth turn down. I was nineteen, remember, and, though my family’s means were meager, we were happy, and I had yet to have my optimism blighted. It would take a winter with Poe, the hell he opened up to me, and, much later, a war to make me sullen and afraid. I smiled and assumed a cheerful countenance, determined to ingratiate myself. Why I should have cared, I don’t know, unless it was his eyes—what I saw in them: a depth of knowledge or, rather, of experience far beyond me and the confines of my life, no matter how I might have been surrounded by monstrosities, sickness, and death.
    â€œThose with none to claim them end up in the almshouse cemetery or, if they’re lucky, here, in Dr. Mütter’s ‘cabinet of horrors’—begging your pardon, Mr. Poe.”
    I winked drolly and would have done a comic gig suitable for the music hall to gain his favor. I must have appeared ridiculous, but I was determined that he should see me as a plucky lad uncowed by my gruesome occupation or his celebrity.
    â€œWhy should they be lucky?”
    I wondered if he would reprove me for my nerve but went on just the same. “It’s more pleasant for their mortal remainsto spend the next life, such as it may be, in the warmth and light. I hate to think of