Death, Dissection and the Destitute

Front Cover
University of Chicago Press, 2000 - History - 453 pages
In the early nineteenth century, body snatching was rife because the only corpses available for medical study were those of hanged murderers. With the Anatomy Act of 1832, however, the bodies of those who died destitute in workhouses were appropriated for dissection. At a time when such a procedure was regarded with fear and revulsion, the Anatomy Act effectively rendered dissection a punishment for poverty. Providing both historical and contemporary insights, Death, Dissection, and the Destitute opens rich new prospects in history and history of science. The new afterword draws important parallels between social and medical history and contemporary concerns regarding organs for transplant and human tissue for research.
 

Contents

II THE ACT
73
III THE AFTERMATH
217
Appendices
285
References
294
Bibliography
378
Afterword
409
Index
435
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About the author (2000)

Ruth Richardson is a historian living in London.

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