![]() ![]() The initial response of the anatomical schools was to form an unofficial partnership with so-called “resurrection men” – in other words, grave robbers. The legal means of acquiring cadavers for study was rapidly outstripped by demand. As well as the prominent University of Edinburgh School of Medicine (headed by Professor Alexander Monro III), a number of rival schools of anatomy also sprung up. In the 1820s, the city of Edinburgh was one of the leading places for the study of medicine and anatomy in the UK (rivalling other European cities such as Padua and Leiden). The Body Snatcher, by Robert Louis Stevenson, is a gothic tale of two medical students of Dr Robert Knox (an Edinburgh anatomist who purchased the bodies of the victims of Messers Burke and Hare in 1828), and the illegal means they used to procure cadavers for their anatomical study. Thus, alternative means of procurement became necessary… ![]() As the law in Scotland changed, and the number of offences bearing capital punishment fell, so too did the number of cadavers available to medical schools. Prior to the inception of the 1832 Anatomy Act, the only source of cadavers from which medical schools could utilise for dissections came from the corpses of executed criminals and suicides. The history of early 19th century anatomical studies is inherently tied in with criminality, and in few places is this history more sordid than in the city of Edinburgh. ![]()
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