Death, dissection, and the destitute
"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."--Jacket
Print Book, English, 2000
2nd ed. with a new afterword View all formats and editions
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 2000
True crime literature
xvii, 453 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
9780226712390, 9780226712406, 0226712397, 0226712400
48498887
Introduction
I. The body
The corpse and popular culture
The corpse as an anatomical object
The corpse as a commodity
II. The act
The sanctity of the graveyard asserted
Foregone conclusions
"Trading assassins"
Alternative necrology
Bringing "science to the poor man's door"
III. The aftermath
The act "is uninjurious if unknown"
The bureaucrat's bad dream
The unpardonable offence
Afterword
Originally published: London ; New York : Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1987