6B SATURDAY, AUGUST 17, 1996
KU EDITION
LAWRENCE JOURNAL-WORLD
KU herbarium roots out clues to Kansas flora
- The herbarium on KU's West Campus takes the mystery out of Kansas plants.
BY JL WATSON
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
Confronted by a taraxacum officinale, most homeowners are likely to mow it down.
Not Craig Freeman. He's more likely to press it, dry it and catalog it for future study, even if it is a common dandelion.
Freeman, associate curator for the Ronald L. McGregor Herbarium on West Campus, is the keeper of more than 380,000 pressed and dried plant specimens.
"We always know we have an impact on the environment, but tracking plants is one way to know how," Freeman said. "In philosophical terms, it's understanding the human influence on landscapes."
Many of the flora under Freeman's care are not native to this region but have become integrated with the existing species, he said.
"We know that when the Europeans arrived, Kansas was
"Many things from the 1700s and 1800s came over from Europe in the ballast of ships," he said. "They came in the eastern ports and moved across the country on the railroads and highways."
tallgrass prairies. There have been major changes in the landscape of the state that have affected species in subtle ways and in very dramatic ways."
One such example is the Carduus nutans, commonly known as musk thistle. The large thistle with the purple head has become such a serious pest that it is a legally noxious weed in Kansas.
"It wasn't present in Kansas until the 1930s," Freeman said. "Now, it's in virtually every county in Kansas."
Craig Freeman assistant director at the KU Herbarium on West Campus, folds up some Eastern Gamma grass for study
The appearance of new species occurs almost every year, Freeman said. Two new species were documented this year. There is also the task of noting which species disappear from the Great Plains every year.
Palm every year. "It's important to stay familiar with plants of this region," Freeman said. "It's part of our history. We have a fairly simple flora. A lot came from adjacent biomes after glacial periods."
"We've gathered 1,500 specimens in a two-year period," he said.
Freeman's research has led him to a site at Fort Leavenworth. The intensive study is helping him document plant life on the military base.
Freeman and his assistants spend much of their time doing field work from late spring through mid-fall, before moving
RICHARD GWIN/IOURNAL-WORLD PHOTO
inside to the dried and cataloged collections.
They have begun converting new and existing specimens to a database checkout system.
"We put them in the computer to make them more accessible to the scientific community and to the general public," Freeman said.
"It's going to be like a grocery store," Freeman said. "We'll be using bar codes."
The change will take some time, but has already begun. It's just one of the changes the herbarium has experienced in the past year.
Another is the merger of infor
mation shared by the herbarium and KU5 Natural History Museum.
"We're under a larger administrative umbrella," Freeman said. "We have a similar mission because what we are doing is documenting life on the planet. It's neat to be part of a larger community."
The affiliation has led to a greater understanding for both departments, Freeman said.
"We all have a common vision for the future," he said. "It's made the Natural History Museum collections much better than before with the synergy that's developing. It's all coming together in new ways."
The Ronald L. McGregor Herbarium is available for use by students, faculty, staff and members of the community. For more information, call 864-4493.
KU's Will Body Program brings bodies to science
- Donors can help give life to others after their own death by donating their bodies to the program at the Kansas University Medical Center.
BY TIM CARPENTER
JOURNAL-WORLD WRITER
KANSAS CITY, KAN. — When the Rev. Jennifer Malewski dies, she won't stav far from the office.
Malewski, staff chaplain at Kansas University Medical Center, and her husband, Charlie, plan to donate their bodies to science through a program at KUMC.
"we've talked with all three of our children. They know what we want," she said. "To me, dying is a part of life. It's a way of living on and helping others."
The state's only program for donating bodies to science —
called the Will Body Program — is at the medical center. The objective is to meet teaching and research needs at KUMC, KU's main campus in Lawrence and other state universities.
"Any medical school is going to be very dependent on this type of program," said Dr. Joseph Besharse, KUMC's chairman of anatomy and cell biology.
Demand for cadavers is rising in the
United States. About 120 medical schools nationwide utilize donated bodies. Other academic programs — physical therapy, nursing, dentistry — rely on cadavers.
donor program.
Thomas said more than 500 people had agreed to give their body to the medical center. There are many reasons for giving, but most donors are motivated by altruism.
"We are fortunate to have an adequate supply," said Randy Thomas, director of the KUMC donor program.
Only a steady increase in bequeathal of bodies has averted a crisis.
"They believe very deeply in helping the next generation by helping to produce the doctors that are going to treat their kids," Thomas said.
He's received letters from donors explaining their decision was precipitated by the death of a young family member.
"My body is a temporal thing," said Alan Mermann, a Yale University chaplain who agreed to bequeath his body. "I need to recycle it like the leaves in my garden."
"As far as I know, all cadavers we've used have voluntarily donated their body."
Some donors view participation as a stage in the life cycle — ashes to ashes, dust to dust.
Some people sign up for the program to protest against cemeteries. They view a hillside covered with headstones as a waste of land.
No substitutes
Others participate for financial reasons. At KUMC, donor estates pay for transporting a body to the medical center. Deceased are embalmed and cremated at no expense to the estates.
Chris Bennett, who coordinates anatomy courses on KU's Lawrence campus
Direct beneficiaries of the ultimate gift are students and faculty involved in health education, surgical practice and medical research.
"There is no substitute," said
is no substitute Pam Lawson, director of the University of Oklahoma's anatomical donation program in Oklahoma City. "Everyone who learns from a cadaver puts that to practical use."
Researchers study disease with brain tissue from donated bodies. Physicians employ cadavers to test surgical procedures before operating on patients.
said.
Computer models, colorful mannequins and textbook graphics have limits, Thomas
Thomas, who works with 180 first-year KU medical students, said universities that don't use the real thing shortchanged students.
"I don't want to see a trend established where the physicians trained in this country stand off ... aloof of the patient as an individual," he said.
He said students who dissect cacavers develop greater understanding of the interaction of the body's 200 bones and 600 muscles.
"Doctoring is hands-on. You're not going to doctor a piece of plastic."
"The patient can't talk to you in words, but they can talk to you in structure," Thomas said.
Chris Bennett, who coordinates anatomy courses on KU's Lawrence campus, said it wasn't uncommon for students to initially feel uneasy about working with a corpse.
Eventually, nearly every student comes to terms with the notion of studying human
remains. They understand it's a privilege to learn anatomy by removing the skin and separating organs from muscle, tendon, artery and vein.
"We use cats, but they're much smaller than humans," Bennett said. "It's a lot of work to find structures on cats that are relatively easy to find on cadavers."
Enrollment in his labs is restricted to 180 undergraduate students. Usually six cadavers are dissected each semester.
Bennett doesn't recall anyone protesting the university's use of human remains.
"As tar as I know," he said, "all cadavers we've used have voluntarily donated their body."
In September 1981, a male wearing only sunglasses was found by people walking next to Potter Lake on the Lawrence campus. The body was left on a beach towel.
They all come from KUMC,
costing the university about $500
each. Cadavers look like someone
at an open-casket funeral.
Wichita State University graduate Charisse Sparks, a second-year medical student at KUMC, spent part of her first semester probing a female cadaver. Inside and out, she will never know any patient better.
.
Thomas, who wasn't managing the Will Body Program at the time of either incident, said misuse of cadavers was unacceptable.
An elaborate operation in the mid 1970s resulted in the placement of a corpse, fishing rod in hand, at the lake's edge in a lawn chair.
Respect is norm
"That's an outrage," he said. Those responsible "should have been put in jail."
During the years, there have been at least two cases in which cadavers were stolen from KU labs.
"It was a senseless prank," said KU Police Director Jim Denney.
There were rules of etiquette in the lab," Sparks said. "Respect was driven home."
Thomas said a student capable of caring for an anonymous cadaver was more likely to become a caring physician.
This individual is that medical student's first patient," he said. "It establishes a very core of medical education. Not just knowledge, but how you approach and treat other people."
He said one donor's body was
See KUMC, page 13B
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