Death, Dissection and the Study of Anatomy ‘Kill or Cure: The History of Medicine and Health’ HI176 Week 4 Dr Rachel Bennett

Key Questions ‘Practical experience of dissecting a human body was an essential requirement of anatomical study in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain’. Discuss. To what extent did popular and religious beliefs over the treatment of the dead body impact upon the supply of cadavers for anatomical demonstration in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century? How was the anatomical study of the dead justified for the benefit of the living in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century?

Lecture Structure The dissection of the human body became a cornerstone of medical education in this period. The practice was justified by medical men as being essential for the long-term benefit of the living. Dissections of human bodies were both teaching events and opportunities to undertake original research. In this period there were complex popular, legal and religious beliefs surrounding the treatment of the dead body that existed alongside those of the medical profession and impacted upon the supply of subjects for dissection. The legal supply of bodies – also referred to as cadavers – for anatomical study was not enough to meet demand. Anatomists had to obtain bodies through illicit and illegal means. This period witnessed major concerns over the problem of grave-robbing – a practice which involved the removing of recently interred bodies from their graves to sell them to the medical and private anatomy schools.

Dissection as a Cornerstone of Medical Education In eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain, an understanding of the human body was a cornerstone of medical education. A crucial element of the process was the study of anatomy through dissection. In the period between 1700 and 1800 historians have cited a progression from “infrequent, ritualised and moralising dissections” to those more scientifically based and morally neutral, at least on the part of those performing them. Several British universities had established the positions of Professor of Anatomy in the early eighteenth century. As the eighteenth century progressed, a student’s first-hand experience of dissecting a human body was believed to be crucial to their medical training. By the early nineteenth century, it was an indispensable requirement.

Medical Beliefs about the Body William Cheselden giving an anatomical demonstration. C.1730. Image taken from the Wellcome Collection. Galvanising Human Remains, 1804, by Giovanni Aldini. Wellcome Library, London.

Popular Beliefs about the Body In this period death was perhaps more commonly witnessed, it happened in domestic settings as opposed to hospitals and was often in the presence of relatives as opposed to doctors. However, this is not to say that people were normalised to death or that it did not affect them. There is a wealth of evidence of complex beliefs about death and the post- mortem treatment of the body that demonstrate these things were concerns for the living as well as the dead. Despite neither the Catholic or Protestant religion explicitly stating that the intact burial of the body was a prerequisite for posthumous grace, it was believed to be unchristian not to give a person a decent burial. There were also customary and superstitious beliefs surrounding the treatment of the dead body in this period.

Popular Depictions of the Dissection Scene The Dissection Room by Thomas Rowlandson. Image taken from Wikimedia Commons. The Persevering Surgeon by Thomas Rowlandson, c. late eighteenth century. Image taken from Pinterest. William Hogarth’s Four Stages of Cruelty (1751) Image taken from Wikimedia Commons.

The Displaying of Dead Bodies In this period, alongside the medical justification of the use of dissection for the long-term benefit of the living and broader popular anxieties over the treatment of the dead body that exacerbated anxieties over the practice, was also a macabre curiosity surrounding the power and potency of the body. In this period there were several anatomical museums opened that served teaching purposes but also tapped into curiosities surrounding the macabre nature of death and bodily display. Anatomist John Hunter’s collection was purchased in 1799 and later housed in the Hunterian Museum in London. The Royal Academy of Arts was founded in London in 1768 and William Hunter was appointed to instruct students in life classes using surface anatomy on living models and dissected bodies. ‘Severed head of eccentric Jeremy Bentham to go on display’, The Telegraph, 2 October 2017. Jeremy Bentham, regarded as the founder of Utilitarianism, bequeathed his body for dissection in 1832 around the same time as he helped to draft the bill that would eventually lead to the passing of the 1832 Anatomy Act.

The Supply of Bodies for Dissection The supply of cadavers for dissection was a persistent problem facing the anatomists and the medical schools in this period. The legal chain of supply was relatively limited when compared to demand. Anatomists were able to obtain the bodies of some executed criminals and a limited amount of the unclaimed poor who died in public institutions. Some medical men paid the hangman for the bodies of executed criminals. In addition, some criminals in the first half of the eighteenth century sold their bodies to surgeons or medical students to buy luxuries such as food and alcohol whilst they were incarcerated awaiting execution. In 1752 the British parliament passed the Murder Act which stipulated that the bodies of those executed for the crime of murder must also suffer a post-mortem punishment. One of the post-mortem punishments stipulated by the act was that their bodies be sent for dissection.

Grave-Robbing The Anatomist Overtaken by the Watch, by William Austin, 1773. The caricature of John Hunter can be seen running away. Image taken from Wikimedia Commons. By Thomas Rowlandson, 1775. Two men placing the shrouded corpse which they have just disinterred into a sack while death, as a night-watchman, grabs one of the grave-robbers. Wellcome Images.

The ‘Golden Age of Bodysnatching’ Iron mort safe, dated 1801-1822. Image taken from Science Museum Group Collection. The early nineteenth century has been called the ‘Golden Age of Bodysnatching’ due to the increased use of professional grave-robbers by the medical schools. The early decades of the century witnessed an intensification of public anxieties over the practice and negative reactions towards anatomists and a more pressing desire within parliament to find a solution of the problem of adequately supplying the medical schools. Fears over bodysnatching meant that ‘watches’ were established in several of Britain’s graveyards, especially at night. In addition, devices known as mort safes were used in an attempt to protect recent graves from the resurrection men. A mort safe in Greyfriars Kirkyard, Edinburgh. Image taken from Wikimedia Commons.

The Case of William Burke Although they were murderers, the case of Burke and Hare epitomised the ‘Golden Age of Bodysnatching’. Over roughly a 12-month period they murdered 16 people to sell their bodies to Dr Robert Knox, an independent lecturer of anatomy in Edinburgh’s Surgeons Square. They lured their victims into the Hares’ lodging house in Tanners Close and then waited until they were in a sufficient state of alcohol-fuelled stupor before laying across their chests, covering their mouth and nostrils and effectively suffocating them, a method of killing subsequently known as ‘Burking’. Following their apprehension for the crimes, Hare turned evidence for the Crown and thus escaped standing trial. Burke was found guilty and sentenced to be hanged on 28 January 1829 at the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh and his body, in an ironic instance of poetic justice, was given to Alexander Monro for dissection. A pocket book made from William Burke’s skin. It is part of the Surgeon’s Hall Museum collection in Edinburgh. William Burke’s skeleton. On display in the Anatomical Museum at Edinburgh University.

The Anatomy Act (1832) The Burke and Hare case had received substantial national press attention and intensified calls for parliament to address the problem of supplying the medical schools with cadavers for dissection. The MP Henry Warburton was appointed to chair a Select Committee into the supply of bodies to the medical schools. Early recommendations in 1829 advocated making the bodies of the unclaimed poor who had died in workhouses, prisons and hospitals available for dissection. The proposal caused intense debate. The Anatomy Act was finally passed in 1832. Its provisions included stipulating that anyone intending to practice anatomy had to obtain a licence from the Home Secretary, it also appointed four inspectors of anatomy to regulate the supply of dead bodies. The act removed the penal option to dissect the bodies of murderers, a practice which had not yielded anywhere near enough bodies to meet demand and, during debates over the act, was argued to have heaped further disdain on the practice of dissection by associating it with criminality. A key part of the act was the stipulation that the unclaimed bodies of those who had died in public institutions including workhouses, prisons and hospitals could be legally dissected. The act was effective in ending the practice of body-snatching but was still contentious at the time as it still effectively allowed for the dissection of the poor without their consent.

Conclusion – returning to the key questions ‘Practical experience of dissecting a human body was an essential requirement of anatomical study in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Britain’. Discuss. To what extent did popular and religious beliefs over the treatment of the dead body impact upon the supply of cadavers for anatomical demonstration in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century? How was the anatomical study of the dead justified for the benefit of the living in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century?