Body-snatching
Encyclopedia
Body snatching is the secret disinterment of corpses from graveyard
s. A common purpose of body snatching is to sell the corpses for dissection
or anatomy
lectures in medical school
s. Those who practised body snatching were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men." A related act is grave robbery, uncovering a tomb
or crypt
to steal artifact
s or personal effects rather than corpses.
Such sentences did not provide enough subjects for the medical schools and private anatomical schools (which did not require a licence before 1832). While during the 18th century hundreds had been executed for trivial crimes, by the 19th century only about 55 people were being sentenced to capital punishment
each year. However, with the expansion of the medical schools, as many as 500 cadavers were needed.
Before electric power to supply refrigeration, bodies would decay rapidly and become unusable for study. Therefore, the medical profession turned to body snatching to supply the deficit of bodies fresh enough to be examined.
Stealing a corpse was only a misdemeanour at common law
, not a felony
, and was therefore only punishable with fine and imprisonment, rather than transportation
or execution. The trade was a sufficiently lucrative business to run the risk of detection, particularly as the authorities tended to ignore what they considered a necessary evil.
Body snatching became so prevalent that it was not unusual for relatives and friends of someone who had just died to watch over the body until burial, and then to keep watch over the grave after burial, to stop it being violated. Iron coffins, too, were used frequently, or the graves were protected by a framework of iron bars called mortsafe
s, well-preserved examples of which may still be seen in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh
.
One method the body snatchers used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade (quieter than metal). When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewellery or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge.
The Lancet
reported another method.
A manhole
-sized square of turf was removed 15 to 20 ft (4.6 to 6.1 ) away from the head of the grave, and a tunnel dug to intercept the coffin, which would be about 4 feet (1.2 m) down. The end of the coffin would be pulled off, and the corpse pulled up through the tunnel. The turf was then replaced, and any relatives watching the graves would not notice the small, remote disturbance. The article suggests that the number of empty coffins that have been discovered "proves beyond a doubt that at this time body snatching was frequent".
During 1827 and 1828, some Edinburgh resurrectionists including Burke and Hare changed their tactics from grave-robbing to murder, as they were paid more for very fresh corpses. Their activities, and those of the London Burkers
who imitated them, resulted in the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832
. This allowed unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives to be used for the study of anatomy, and required the licensing of anatomy teachers, which essentially ended the body snatching trade. The use of bodies for scientific research in the UK is now governed by the Human Tissue Authority
.
The removed earth was often shoveled onto canvas tarp laid by the grave, so the nearby grounds were undisturbed. Digging commenced at the head of the grave, clear to the coffin. The remaining earth on the coffin provided a counterweight which snapped the partially covered coffin lid (which was covered in sacking to muffle noise) as crowbars or hooks pulled the lid free at the head of the coffin. Usually, the body would be disrobed–the garments thrown back into the coffin before the earth was put back into place.
Resurrectionists have also been known to hire women to act the part of grieving relatives and to claim the bodies of dead at poorhouses. Women were also hired to attend funerals as grieving mourners; their purpose was to ascertain any hardships the body snatchers may later encounter during the disinterment. Bribed servants would sometimes offer body snatchers access to their dead master or mistress lying in state; the removed body would be replaced with weights.
Although medical research and education lagged in the United States compared to medical colleges' European counterparts, the interest in anatomical dissection grew in the United States. Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York were renowned for body snatching activity: all locales provided plenty of cadavers. Finding subjects for dissection proved to be "morally troubling" for students of anatomy. As late as the mid-19th century, John Gorham Coffin, a prominent professor and medical physician wondered how any ethical physician could participate in the traffic of dead bodies.
Dr. Charles Knowlton (1800–1850) was imprisoned for two months in the Worcester (Massachusetts) County Jail for "illegal dissection" in 1824, a couple of months after graduating with distinction from Dartmouth Medical School. His thesis (http://www.danallosso.com/Graverobbing.html) defended dissection on the rationalist basis that "value of any art or science should be determined by the tendency it has to increase the happiness, or to diminish the misery, of mankind." Knowlton called for doctors to relieve "public prejudice" by donating their own bodies for dissection.
The body of Ohio
congressman John Scott Harrison
, son of William Henry Harrison
, was snatched in 1878 for Ohio Medical College, and discovered by his son Benjamin Harrison
.
. Study of anatomy legitimized the medical field, setting it apart from homeopathic and botanical studies. Later, in 1847, physicians formed the American Medical Association
, in an effort to differentiate between the "true science" of medicine and "the assumptions of ignorance and empiricism" based on an education without the experience of human dissection.
In 1762, Dr. William Shippen, Jr. founded the medical department of University of Pennsylvania
. Dr. Shippen put an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette
in November 1762 announcing his lectures about the "art of dissecting, injections, etc." The cost was "five pistoles." In 1765, his house was attacked by a mob, claiming the doctor had desecrated a church burying ground. The doctor denied this and made known that he only used bodies of "'suicides, executed felons, and now and then one from the Potter's Field
'".
In Boston, medical students faced similar issues with procuring subjects for dissection. In his biographical notes, John Collins Warren, Jr.
wrote, "No occurrences in the course of my life have given me more trouble and anxiety than the procuring of subjects for dissection." He continues to tell of his father's luck with finding subjects during the Revolutionary War: many soldiers who had died were without relation. These experiences gave John Collins Warren
the experience he needed to begin his lectures on anatomy in 1781. His advertisement in the local paper stated the following: "A Course of lectures will be delivered this Winter upon the several Branches of Physick, for the Improvement of all such as are desirous of obtaining medical Knowledge: Those who propose attending, are requested to make Application as soon as possible, as the Course will commence in a few days. It was dated and signed: Boston 01/01/1781 John Warren, Sec'y, Medical Society.
Ebenezer Hersey, a physician, left Harvard College
£1,000 for the creation of a Professorship in Anatomy in 1770. A year earlier, John Warren and his friends had created a secret anatomic society. This society's purpose was to participate in anatomic dissection, using cadavers that they themselves procured. The group's name was the "Spunkers;" however, speaking or writing the name was prohibited. Often the group used shovels to obtain fresh corpses for its anatomical study
Harvard Medical School
was established on November 22, 1782; John Collins Warren was elected Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. When his son was in the college in 1796, the peaceful times provided few subjects. John Collins Warren, Jr. wrote: "Having understood that a man without relations was to be buried in the North Burying-Ground, I formed a party... When my father came up in the morning to lecture, and found that I had been engaged in this scrape, he was very much alarmed."
Dr. John Collins Warren's quest for subjects led him to consult with his colleague, W.E. Horner, professor of anatomy at University of Pennsylvania
, who wrote back: "Since the opening of our lectures, the town has been so uncommonly healthy, that I have not been able to obtain a fourth part of subjects required for our dissecting rooms."
Warren later enlisted the help of an old family friend, Dr. John Revere (son of Paul Revere
) to procure subjects for dissection. Revere called upon John Godman who suggested that Warren employ the services of James Henderson
, "a trusty old friend and servant" who could "at any time, and almost to any number, obtain the articles you desire."
Dr. John C. Warren attempted to set up a cadaver provision system in Boston, similar to the systems already set up in New York and Philadelphia. Public officials and burial-ground employees were routinely bribed for entrance to Potter's Field to get bodies. In New York, the bodies were divided into two groupings–one group contained the bodies of those "most entitled to respect, or most likely to be called for by friends;" the other bodies were not exempt from exhumation. In Philadelphia's two public burying grounds, anatomists claimed bodies regularly, without consideration. "If schools or physicians differed over who should get an allotment of bodies, the dispute was to be settled by the mayor–a high-reaching conspiracy that resulted in a harvest of about 450 bodies per school year."
In December 1882, it was discovered that six bodies had been disinterred from Lebanon Cemetery and were on route to Jefferson Medical College for dissection. Philadelphia's African-Americans were outraged, and a crowd assembled at the city morgue where the discovered bodies were sent. Reportedly, one of the crowd urged the group to swear that they would seek revenge for those who participated in desecration of the graves. Another man screamed when he discovered the body of his 29-year-old brother. The Philadelphia Press broke the story when a teary elderly woman identified her husband's body, whose burial she had afforded only by begging for the $22 at the wharves where he had been employed. Physician William S. Forbes
was indicted, and the case led to passage of various Anatomical acts.
After the public hanging of 39 Dakota warriors in the aftermath of the Dakota War of 1862
, a group of doctors removed the bodies under cover of darkness from their riverside grave and divided the corpses among themselves. Doctor William Worrall Mayo
received the body of a warrior called "Cut Nose" and dissected it in the presence of other doctors. He then cleaned and articulated the skeleton and kept the bones in an iron kettle in his office. His sons
received their first lessons in osteology from this skeleton.
Prior to these measures allowing for more subjects, many tactics were employed to protect the bodies of relatives. Police were engaged to watch the burying grounds but were often bribed or made drunk. Spring guns were set in the coffins, and poorer families would leave items like a stone or a blade of grass or a shell to show whether the grave was tampered with or not. In his collection of Boston police force details, Edward Savage made notes of a reward offer on April 13, 1814: "The selectmen offer &100 reward for arrest of grave-robbers at South Burying-Ground". Iron fences were constructed around many burying grounds as well as deterrent to body snatchers. "Burglar proof grave vaults made of steel" were sold with the promise that loved ones' remains would not be one of the 40,000 bodies "mutilated every year on dissecting tables in medical colleges in the United States." The medical appropriation of bodies aroused much popular resentment. Between 1765 and 1884, there were at least 25 documented crowd actions against American medical schools.
Despite these efforts, body snatchers persisted. At City Hospital in New York, on April 13, 1788, a group of boys playing near the dissection room window peered in. Accounts vary, but one of the boys saw what he thought were his mother's remains or that one of the students shook a dismembered arm at the boys. The boy, whose mother had recently died, told his father of the occurrence; the father, a mason, led a group of laborers in an attack on the hospital.
In order to control the destruction of private property, the authorities participated in searches of local physicians' houses for medical students, professors, and stolen corpses. The mob was satisfied. Later, the mob reassembled to attack the jail where some of the medical students were being held for their safety. The militia was called, but few showed; this was perhaps due to the militia sharing the public's outrage. One small troop was harassed and quickly withdrew. Several prominent citizens–including Governor George Clinton; General Baron von Steuben, and John Jay–participated in the ranks of the militia protecting the doctors at the jail. Three rioters were killed when the embattled militia opened fire on the mob, and when militia members from the countryside joined the defense, the mob threat quickly dissipated.
, such as Canada
, where religious customs as well as the lack of means of preservation made it hard for medical students to obtain a steady supply of fresh bodies. In many instances the students had to resort to fairly regular body snatching.
In Montreal
during the winter of 1875, typhoid fever
struck at a convent school. The corpses of the victims were filched by body snatchers before relatives arrived from America, causing an international scandal. Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec was amended to prevent a recurrence, effectively ending medical body snatching in Quebec.
, the former President Tassos Papadopoulos
's body was stolen from his grave on 11 December 2009.
, Vesalius
was accustomed to robbing the Paris graveyards with fellow anatomy pupils. Body snatchers in France were called "Les Corbeaux" (the crows). Violation of graves could result in a year's imprisonment plus a stiff fine.
, the medical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries were on a constant hunt for bodies. The Bullys' Acre or Hospital Fields at Kilmainham
was a rich source of anatomical material as it was a communal burial ground and easily accessed. Soldiers attached to the nearby Royal Hospital were always on the alert for grave robbers mainly because many of their comrades were buried there. In November 1825 a sentry captured Thomas Tuite, a known resurrectionist, in possession of five bodies. When searched his pockets were found to be full of teeth–in those days a set of teeth fetched £1 (about £50 in 2011). Many other graveyards were targets of the medical students or those who made robbing graves their profession. The largest cemetery in Ireland, Glasnevin Cemetery
, laid out in the 18th century, had a high wall with strategically placed watch-towers as well as blood-hounds to deter body snatchers.
, poorhouses were accustomed to receiving a small fee by undertakers who paid a fine for ignoring burial laws and resold the bodies (especially those with no family) to doctors.
Churchyard near Lichfield
in south Staffordshire
. Mrs Hammond's remains were taken by animal rights extremist
s who were campaigning against Darley Oaks Farm, a licensed facility which bred guinea pigs for scientific research. Mrs Hammond was the mother in law of one of the farm's owners. After a four-year investigation by Staffordshire Police
four leaders of the Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
campaign group (three men: Kerry Whitburn of Edgbaston, John Smith of Wolverhampton, John Ablewhite of Manchester; and one woman: Josephine Mayo of Staffordshire) were jailed for conspiracy to blackmail. The men received 12 years each and the woman received four years. The police said the conspiracy included the theft of Mrs Hammond's remains, which were recovered by police following information given by one of the four.
In February 2006, Dr. Michael Mastromarino, then a 42-year-old former New Jersey-based oral surgeon and CEO and executive director of operations at Biomedical Tissue Services
, was convicted along with three employees of illegally harvesting human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from individuals awaiting cremation, for forging numerous consent forms, and for selling the illegally obtained body parts to medical companies without consent of their families, and then sentenced to long prison terms. BTS sold its products to five companies, including Life Cell Corporation, of New Jersey, and Regeneration Technologies, of Florida.
There is still a demand for corpses for transplantation surgery in the form of allograft
s. Modern body snatchers feed this demand. Tissue such gained is medically unsafe and unusable. The broadcaster Alistair Cooke
's bones were removed in New York City and replaced with pvc pipe before his cremation.
Graveyard
A graveyard is any place set aside for long-term burial of the dead, with or without monuments such as headstones...
s. A common purpose of body snatching is to sell the corpses for dissection
Dissection
Dissection is usually the process of disassembling and observing something to determine its internal structure and as an aid to discerning the functions and relationships of its components....
or anatomy
Anatomy
Anatomy is a branch of biology and medicine that is the consideration of the structure of living things. It is a general term that includes human anatomy, animal anatomy , and plant anatomy...
lectures in medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
s. Those who practised body snatching were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men." A related act is grave robbery, uncovering a tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
or crypt
Crypt
In architecture, a crypt is a stone chamber or vault beneath the floor of a burial vault possibly containing sarcophagi, coffins or relics....
to steal artifact
Artifact (archaeology)
An artifact or artefact is "something made or given shape by man, such as a tool or a work of art, esp an object of archaeological interest"...
s or personal effects rather than corpses.
Body snatching in the United Kingdom
Before the Anatomy Act of 1832, the only legal supply of corpses for anatomical purposes in the UK were those condemned to death and dissection by the courts. Those who were sentenced to dissection by the courts were often guilty of comparatively harsher crimes.Such sentences did not provide enough subjects for the medical schools and private anatomical schools (which did not require a licence before 1832). While during the 18th century hundreds had been executed for trivial crimes, by the 19th century only about 55 people were being sentenced to capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
each year. However, with the expansion of the medical schools, as many as 500 cadavers were needed.
Before electric power to supply refrigeration, bodies would decay rapidly and become unusable for study. Therefore, the medical profession turned to body snatching to supply the deficit of bodies fresh enough to be examined.
Stealing a corpse was only a misdemeanour at common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
, not a felony
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...
, and was therefore only punishable with fine and imprisonment, rather than transportation
Penal transportation
Transportation or penal transportation is the deporting of convicted criminals to a penal colony. Examples include transportation by France to Devil's Island and by the UK to its colonies in the Americas, from the 1610s through the American Revolution in the 1770s, and then to Australia between...
or execution. The trade was a sufficiently lucrative business to run the risk of detection, particularly as the authorities tended to ignore what they considered a necessary evil.
Body snatching became so prevalent that it was not unusual for relatives and friends of someone who had just died to watch over the body until burial, and then to keep watch over the grave after burial, to stop it being violated. Iron coffins, too, were used frequently, or the graves were protected by a framework of iron bars called mortsafe
Mortsafe
Mortsafes were contraptions designed to protect the bodies of the dead from disturbance. There had been body-snatching close to the schools of anatomy in Scotland since the early 18th century...
s, well-preserved examples of which may still be seen in Greyfriars churchyard, Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
One method the body snatchers used was to dig at the head end of a recent burial, digging with a wooden spade (quieter than metal). When they reached the coffin (in London the graves were quite shallow), they broke open the coffin, put a rope around the corpse and dragged it out. They were often careful not to steal anything such as jewellery or clothes as this would cause them to be liable to a felony charge.
The Lancet
The Lancet
The Lancet is a weekly peer-reviewed general medical journal. It is one of the world's best known, oldest, and most respected general medical journals...
reported another method.
A manhole
Manhole
A manhole is an opening used to gain access to sewers or other underground structures, usually for maintenance.Manhole may also refer to:* Manhole , a metal band from Los Angeles* The Manhole, a computer game...
-sized square of turf was removed 15 to 20 ft (4.6 to 6.1 ) away from the head of the grave, and a tunnel dug to intercept the coffin, which would be about 4 feet (1.2 m) down. The end of the coffin would be pulled off, and the corpse pulled up through the tunnel. The turf was then replaced, and any relatives watching the graves would not notice the small, remote disturbance. The article suggests that the number of empty coffins that have been discovered "proves beyond a doubt that at this time body snatching was frequent".
During 1827 and 1828, some Edinburgh resurrectionists including Burke and Hare changed their tactics from grave-robbing to murder, as they were paid more for very fresh corpses. Their activities, and those of the London Burkers
London Burkers
The London Burkers were a group of body snatchers, operating in London, who apparently modelled their activities on those of the notorious Burke and Hare...
who imitated them, resulted in the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832
Anatomy Act 1832
The Anatomy Act 1832 was a United Kingdom Act of Parliament that gave freer license to doctors, teachers of anatomy, and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies...
. This allowed unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives to be used for the study of anatomy, and required the licensing of anatomy teachers, which essentially ended the body snatching trade. The use of bodies for scientific research in the UK is now governed by the Human Tissue Authority
Human Tissue Authority
The Human Tissue Authority is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom that regulates the removal, storage, use and disposal of human bodies, organs and tissue for a number of scheduled purposes such as research, transplantation, and education and training.It was created by the Human...
.
Body snatching in the United States
In the United States, body snatchers generally worked in small groups, which scouted and pillaged fresh graves. In general, fresh graves were best, since the earth had not yet settled and digging was easy work.The removed earth was often shoveled onto canvas tarp laid by the grave, so the nearby grounds were undisturbed. Digging commenced at the head of the grave, clear to the coffin. The remaining earth on the coffin provided a counterweight which snapped the partially covered coffin lid (which was covered in sacking to muffle noise) as crowbars or hooks pulled the lid free at the head of the coffin. Usually, the body would be disrobed–the garments thrown back into the coffin before the earth was put back into place.
Resurrectionists have also been known to hire women to act the part of grieving relatives and to claim the bodies of dead at poorhouses. Women were also hired to attend funerals as grieving mourners; their purpose was to ascertain any hardships the body snatchers may later encounter during the disinterment. Bribed servants would sometimes offer body snatchers access to their dead master or mistress lying in state; the removed body would be replaced with weights.
Although medical research and education lagged in the United States compared to medical colleges' European counterparts, the interest in anatomical dissection grew in the United States. Philadelphia, Baltimore, New York were renowned for body snatching activity: all locales provided plenty of cadavers. Finding subjects for dissection proved to be "morally troubling" for students of anatomy. As late as the mid-19th century, John Gorham Coffin, a prominent professor and medical physician wondered how any ethical physician could participate in the traffic of dead bodies.
Dr. Charles Knowlton (1800–1850) was imprisoned for two months in the Worcester (Massachusetts) County Jail for "illegal dissection" in 1824, a couple of months after graduating with distinction from Dartmouth Medical School. His thesis (http://www.danallosso.com/Graverobbing.html) defended dissection on the rationalist basis that "value of any art or science should be determined by the tendency it has to increase the happiness, or to diminish the misery, of mankind." Knowlton called for doctors to relieve "public prejudice" by donating their own bodies for dissection.
The body of Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
congressman John Scott Harrison
John Scott Harrison
John Scott Harrison was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Ohio and the only man to be both the son and the father of U.S. Presidents. His father, William Henry Harrison was the 9th President in 1841; and, his son, Benjamin Harrison, was the 23rd President from 1889-1893...
, son of William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison
William Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States , an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office. He was 68 years, 23 days old when elected, the oldest president elected until Ronald Reagan in 1980, and last President to be born before the...
, was snatched in 1878 for Ohio Medical College, and discovered by his son Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
.
Emerging Medical Schools
The demand for cadavers for human dissection grew as medical schools were established in the United States. Between the years of 1758 and 1788, only 63 of the 3500 physicians in the Colonies had studied abroad, namely at EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. Study of anatomy legitimized the medical field, setting it apart from homeopathic and botanical studies. Later, in 1847, physicians formed the American Medical Association
American Medical Association
The American Medical Association , founded in 1847 and incorporated in 1897, is the largest association of medical doctors and medical students in the United States.-Scope and operations:...
, in an effort to differentiate between the "true science" of medicine and "the assumptions of ignorance and empiricism" based on an education without the experience of human dissection.
In 1762, Dr. William Shippen, Jr. founded the medical department of University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
. Dr. Shippen put an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Gazette
Pennsylvania Gazette
The Pennsylvania Gazette was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728, before the time period of the American Revolution, until 1815...
in November 1762 announcing his lectures about the "art of dissecting, injections, etc." The cost was "five pistoles." In 1765, his house was attacked by a mob, claiming the doctor had desecrated a church burying ground. The doctor denied this and made known that he only used bodies of "'suicides, executed felons, and now and then one from the Potter's Field
Potter's field
A potter's field was an American term for a place for the burial of unknown or indigent people. The expression derives from the Bible, referring to a field used for the extraction of potter's clay, which was useless for agriculture but could be used as a burial site.-Origin:The term comes from...
'".
In Boston, medical students faced similar issues with procuring subjects for dissection. In his biographical notes, John Collins Warren, Jr.
John Collins Warren, Jr.
John Collins Warren was an American surgeon and president of the American Surgical Association.-Early life and education:...
wrote, "No occurrences in the course of my life have given me more trouble and anxiety than the procuring of subjects for dissection." He continues to tell of his father's luck with finding subjects during the Revolutionary War: many soldiers who had died were without relation. These experiences gave John Collins Warren
John Collins Warren
John Collins Warren , of Boston, was one of the most renowned American surgeons of the 19th century. In 1846 he gave permission to William T.G. Morton to provide ether anesthesia while Warren performed a minor surgical procedure...
the experience he needed to begin his lectures on anatomy in 1781. His advertisement in the local paper stated the following: "A Course of lectures will be delivered this Winter upon the several Branches of Physick, for the Improvement of all such as are desirous of obtaining medical Knowledge: Those who propose attending, are requested to make Application as soon as possible, as the Course will commence in a few days. It was dated and signed: Boston 01/01/1781 John Warren, Sec'y, Medical Society.
Ebenezer Hersey, a physician, left Harvard College
Harvard College
Harvard College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is one of two schools within Harvard University granting undergraduate degrees...
£1,000 for the creation of a Professorship in Anatomy in 1770. A year earlier, John Warren and his friends had created a secret anatomic society. This society's purpose was to participate in anatomic dissection, using cadavers that they themselves procured. The group's name was the "Spunkers;" however, speaking or writing the name was prohibited. Often the group used shovels to obtain fresh corpses for its anatomical study
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
was established on November 22, 1782; John Collins Warren was elected Professor of Anatomy and Surgery. When his son was in the college in 1796, the peaceful times provided few subjects. John Collins Warren, Jr. wrote: "Having understood that a man without relations was to be buried in the North Burying-Ground, I formed a party... When my father came up in the morning to lecture, and found that I had been engaged in this scrape, he was very much alarmed."
Dr. John Collins Warren's quest for subjects led him to consult with his colleague, W.E. Horner, professor of anatomy at University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
, who wrote back: "Since the opening of our lectures, the town has been so uncommonly healthy, that I have not been able to obtain a fourth part of subjects required for our dissecting rooms."
Warren later enlisted the help of an old family friend, Dr. John Revere (son of Paul Revere
Paul Revere
Paul Revere was an American silversmith and a patriot in the American Revolution. He is most famous for alerting Colonial militia of approaching British forces before the battles of Lexington and Concord, as dramatized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, Paul Revere's Ride...
) to procure subjects for dissection. Revere called upon John Godman who suggested that Warren employ the services of James Henderson
James Henderson
James Henderson may refer to:* Big James Henderson , American powerlifter, preacher and motivational speaker* James Pinckney Henderson , American politician, first governor of Texas...
, "a trusty old friend and servant" who could "at any time, and almost to any number, obtain the articles you desire."
Dr. John C. Warren attempted to set up a cadaver provision system in Boston, similar to the systems already set up in New York and Philadelphia. Public officials and burial-ground employees were routinely bribed for entrance to Potter's Field to get bodies. In New York, the bodies were divided into two groupings–one group contained the bodies of those "most entitled to respect, or most likely to be called for by friends;" the other bodies were not exempt from exhumation. In Philadelphia's two public burying grounds, anatomists claimed bodies regularly, without consideration. "If schools or physicians differed over who should get an allotment of bodies, the dispute was to be settled by the mayor–a high-reaching conspiracy that resulted in a harvest of about 450 bodies per school year."
Race and Body snatching
Public graveyards were not only sanctioned by social and economic standing, but also by race. New York was 15% black in the 1780s. "Bayley's dissecting tables, as well as those of Columbia College" often took bodies from segregated section of potter's field, the Negroes Burying Ground. Free blacks as well as slaves were buried there. In February 1787, a group of free blacks petitioned the city's common council about the medical students, who "under cover of night...dig up the bodies of the deceased, friends and relatives of the petitioners, carry them away without respect to age or sex, mangle their flesh out of wanton curiosity and then expose it to beasts and birds."In December 1882, it was discovered that six bodies had been disinterred from Lebanon Cemetery and were on route to Jefferson Medical College for dissection. Philadelphia's African-Americans were outraged, and a crowd assembled at the city morgue where the discovered bodies were sent. Reportedly, one of the crowd urged the group to swear that they would seek revenge for those who participated in desecration of the graves. Another man screamed when he discovered the body of his 29-year-old brother. The Philadelphia Press broke the story when a teary elderly woman identified her husband's body, whose burial she had afforded only by begging for the $22 at the wharves where he had been employed. Physician William S. Forbes
William S. Forbes
William Smith Forbes was an American physician who served as demonstrator of anatomy at Jefferson Medical College...
was indicted, and the case led to passage of various Anatomical acts.
After the public hanging of 39 Dakota warriors in the aftermath of the Dakota War of 1862
Dakota War of 1862
The Dakota War of 1862, also known as the Sioux Uprising, was an armed conflict between the United States and several bands of the eastern Sioux. It began on August 17, 1862, along the Minnesota River in southwest Minnesota...
, a group of doctors removed the bodies under cover of darkness from their riverside grave and divided the corpses among themselves. Doctor William Worrall Mayo
William Worrall Mayo
William Worrall Mayo was a British medical doctor and chemist, best known for establishing the private medical practice that later evolved into the Mayo Clinic. He was a descendant of a famous English chemist, John Mayow. His sons, William James Mayo and Charles Horace Mayo, joined the private...
received the body of a warrior called "Cut Nose" and dissected it in the presence of other doctors. He then cleaned and articulated the skeleton and kept the bones in an iron kettle in his office. His sons
Mayo brothers
The Mayo brothers were Charles Horace Mayo and William James Mayo, who with the help of their partners, co-founded the Mayo Clinic. The original partners in the practice were the Mayo brothers, Drs. Stinchfield, Judd, Graham, Plummer, Millet and Balfour...
received their first lessons in osteology from this skeleton.
Public Outcry
Graves of whites also were not safe: On February 21, 1788, a body of a white woman was taken from Trinity Church. A hundred-dollar reward was offered by the rector of the church for information leading to the arrest of grave robbers. In the Daily Advertiser, many editorial letters were written about the incident: one such writer named Humanio warned that "lives may be forfeit...should [the body snatchers] persist." There was cause for concern: body snatching was perceived to be "a daily occurrence." To assuage the outraged public, legislation was enacted to thwart the activities of the body snatchers; eventually, anatomy acts, such as Massachusetts Anatomy Act of 1831, allowed for the legalization of anatomy studies.Prior to these measures allowing for more subjects, many tactics were employed to protect the bodies of relatives. Police were engaged to watch the burying grounds but were often bribed or made drunk. Spring guns were set in the coffins, and poorer families would leave items like a stone or a blade of grass or a shell to show whether the grave was tampered with or not. In his collection of Boston police force details, Edward Savage made notes of a reward offer on April 13, 1814: "The selectmen offer &100 reward for arrest of grave-robbers at South Burying-Ground". Iron fences were constructed around many burying grounds as well as deterrent to body snatchers. "Burglar proof grave vaults made of steel" were sold with the promise that loved ones' remains would not be one of the 40,000 bodies "mutilated every year on dissecting tables in medical colleges in the United States." The medical appropriation of bodies aroused much popular resentment. Between 1765 and 1884, there were at least 25 documented crowd actions against American medical schools.
Despite these efforts, body snatchers persisted. At City Hospital in New York, on April 13, 1788, a group of boys playing near the dissection room window peered in. Accounts vary, but one of the boys saw what he thought were his mother's remains or that one of the students shook a dismembered arm at the boys. The boy, whose mother had recently died, told his father of the occurrence; the father, a mason, led a group of laborers in an attack on the hospital.
In order to control the destruction of private property, the authorities participated in searches of local physicians' houses for medical students, professors, and stolen corpses. The mob was satisfied. Later, the mob reassembled to attack the jail where some of the medical students were being held for their safety. The militia was called, but few showed; this was perhaps due to the militia sharing the public's outrage. One small troop was harassed and quickly withdrew. Several prominent citizens–including Governor George Clinton; General Baron von Steuben, and John Jay–participated in the ranks of the militia protecting the doctors at the jail. Three rioters were killed when the embattled militia opened fire on the mob, and when militia members from the countryside joined the defense, the mob threat quickly dissipated.
Canada
The practice was also common in other parts of the British EmpireBritish Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
, such as Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, where religious customs as well as the lack of means of preservation made it hard for medical students to obtain a steady supply of fresh bodies. In many instances the students had to resort to fairly regular body snatching.
In Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
during the winter of 1875, typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
struck at a convent school. The corpses of the victims were filched by body snatchers before relatives arrived from America, causing an international scandal. Eventually the Anatomy Act of Quebec was amended to prevent a recurrence, effectively ending medical body snatching in Quebec.
China
In rural China, body snatching is a somewhat frequent phenomenon. Superstitious Chinese believe that if a young man dies before he is married, and therefore cannot be expected to buried beside a woman, that his soul will be eternally lonely. Therefore entrepreneurial body snatchers will sometimes steal female cadavers from graves and then resell them to families that have recently lost a male member who was unmarried at the time of his death, in order for the cadaver to be buried next to him. In fact the demand for such cadavers is oftentimes so high that there have been several documented murders of young Chinese women for the purposes of reselling their remains. Body snatchers will even market their wares with euphemisms such as "wet goods," which refer to recently deceased cadavers, in comparison to "dry goods," which presumably have been in the ground for longer.Cyprus
In CyprusCyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
, the former President Tassos Papadopoulos
Tassos Papadopoulos
Tassos Nikolaou Papadopoulos was a Cypriot politician. He served as the fifth President of the Republic of Cyprus from February 28, 2003 to February 28, 2008.His parents were Nicolas and Aggeliki from Assia. He was the first of three children...
's body was stolen from his grave on 11 December 2009.
France
While studying in ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Vesalius
Vesalius
Andreas Vesalius was a Flemish anatomist, physician, and author of one of the most influential books on human anatomy, De humani corporis fabrica . Vesalius is often referred to as the founder of modern human anatomy. Vesalius is the Latinized form of Andries van Wesel...
was accustomed to robbing the Paris graveyards with fellow anatomy pupils. Body snatchers in France were called "Les Corbeaux" (the crows). Violation of graves could result in a year's imprisonment plus a stiff fine.
Ireland
In Dublin, IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, the medical schools of the 18th and 19th centuries were on a constant hunt for bodies. The Bullys' Acre or Hospital Fields at Kilmainham
Kilmainham
Kilmainham is a suburb of Dublin south of the River Liffey and west of the city centre, in the Dublin 8 postal district.-History:In the Viking era, the monastery was home to the first Norse base in Ireland....
was a rich source of anatomical material as it was a communal burial ground and easily accessed. Soldiers attached to the nearby Royal Hospital were always on the alert for grave robbers mainly because many of their comrades were buried there. In November 1825 a sentry captured Thomas Tuite, a known resurrectionist, in possession of five bodies. When searched his pockets were found to be full of teeth–in those days a set of teeth fetched £1 (about £50 in 2011). Many other graveyards were targets of the medical students or those who made robbing graves their profession. The largest cemetery in Ireland, Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery
Glasnevin Cemetery , officially known as Prospect Cemetery, is the largest non-denominational cemetery in Ireland with an estimated 1.5 million burials...
, laid out in the 18th century, had a high wall with strategically placed watch-towers as well as blood-hounds to deter body snatchers.
The Netherlands
In The NetherlandsNetherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
, poorhouses were accustomed to receiving a small fee by undertakers who paid a fine for ignoring burial laws and resold the bodies (especially those with no family) to doctors.
Contemporary body snatching
There are also modern-day reports of body snatching, although this is very rare. One notorious case in the United Kingdom involved the theft of the remains of Gladys Hammond from YoxallYoxall
Yoxall is a large village in Staffordshire, England. It is on the banks of the River Swarbourn on the A515 road north of Lichfield and south west of Burton upon Trent...
Churchyard near Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...
in south Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...
. Mrs Hammond's remains were taken by animal rights extremist
Animal liberation movement
The animal-liberation movement, sometimes called the animal-rights movement, animal personhood, or animal-advocacy movement, is a social movement which seeks an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, an end to the status of animals as property, and...
s who were campaigning against Darley Oaks Farm, a licensed facility which bred guinea pigs for scientific research. Mrs Hammond was the mother in law of one of the farm's owners. After a four-year investigation by Staffordshire Police
Staffordshire Police
Staffordshire Police is the territorial police force responsible for policing Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent in the West Midlands of England...
four leaders of the Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs
Save the Newchurch Guinea Pigs was a six-year campaign by British animal rights activists to close a farm in Newchurch, Staffordshire that bred guinea pigs for animal research...
campaign group (three men: Kerry Whitburn of Edgbaston, John Smith of Wolverhampton, John Ablewhite of Manchester; and one woman: Josephine Mayo of Staffordshire) were jailed for conspiracy to blackmail. The men received 12 years each and the woman received four years. The police said the conspiracy included the theft of Mrs Hammond's remains, which were recovered by police following information given by one of the four.
In February 2006, Dr. Michael Mastromarino, then a 42-year-old former New Jersey-based oral surgeon and CEO and executive director of operations at Biomedical Tissue Services
Biomedical Tissue Services
Biomedical Tissue Services was a Fort Lee, New Jersey-based human tissue recovery firm that was shut down by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on October 8, 2005 after its president, Dr Michael Mastromarino, and two other employees were convicted of illegally harvesting human bones, organs,...
, was convicted along with three employees of illegally harvesting human bones, organs, tissue and other cadaver parts from individuals awaiting cremation, for forging numerous consent forms, and for selling the illegally obtained body parts to medical companies without consent of their families, and then sentenced to long prison terms. BTS sold its products to five companies, including Life Cell Corporation, of New Jersey, and Regeneration Technologies, of Florida.
There is still a demand for corpses for transplantation surgery in the form of allograft
Allotransplantation
Allotransplantation is the transplantation of cells, tissues, or organs, sourced from a genetically non-identical member of the same species as the recipient. The transplant is called an allograft or allogeneic transplant or homograft...
s. Modern body snatchers feed this demand. Tissue such gained is medically unsafe and unusable. The broadcaster Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke
Alfred Alistair Cooke KBE was a British/American journalist, television personality and broadcaster. Outside his journalistic output, which included Letter from America and Alistair Cooke's America, he was well known in the United States as the host of PBS Masterpiece Theater from 1971 to 1992...
's bones were removed in New York City and replaced with pvc pipe before his cremation.
In literature
- A famous short storyShort storyA short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Robert Louis StevensonRobert Louis StevensonRobert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
is The Body SnatcherThe Body SnatcherThe Body Snatcher is a fictional short story by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson. First published in the Pall Mall Christmas "Extra", in December 1884, the story is based on characters in the employ of Robert Knox, around the time of the Burke and Hare murders.-Plot summary:The story...
, with a film adaptation starring Boris KarloffBoris KarloffWilliam Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
. - Jerry CruncherJerry Cruncher-Overview:Jerry Cruncher is employed as a porter for Tellson's Bank of London. He earns extra money as a 'resurrection man' removing bodies from their graves for sale to medical schools and students as cadavers. During the story, Jerry Cruncher accompanies Jarvis Lorry and Lucie Manette to Paris...
, a character from A Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two CitiesA Tale of Two Cities is a novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. With well over 200 million copies sold, it ranks among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature....
by Charles DickensCharles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
, works at night as a "resurrection man". - H. P. LovecraftH. P. LovecraftHoward Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
wrote of body snatchers in his novels The Case of Charles Dexter WardThe Case of Charles Dexter WardThe Case of Charles Dexter Ward is a short novel by H. P. Lovecraft, written in early 1927, but not published during the author's liftetime...
and Herbert West–Reanimator. - Other recent depictions of the trade include The Resurrectionist by James Bradley, The Giant O'Brien by Hilary Mantel, An Acquaintance with Darkness by and Ann Rinaldi, The Bone Garden by Tess GerritsenTess GerritsenTess Gerritsen, M.D., is a Chinese-American novelist and retired physician. Her first name is really Terry; she decided to feminize it when she was a writer of romance novels.-Early life:...
, and Fleshmarket by Nicola MorganNicola MorganNicola Morgan is a Scottish author, best known for her novel, Mondays Are Red.-Biography:Nicola Morgan was born in a school in 1961, where her parents worked. They kept moving from school to school. Morgan's father taught English and French and her mother taught mathematics and science...
. - James McGee'sJames McGee (author)James McGee is an English novelist known for his historical novels about a fictional Bow Street Runner Matthew Hawkwood. The books are set in Regency London....
Resurrectionist centres on his main protagonist, James Hawkwood, in hunt of a group of resurrectionists who illegally smuggle bodies for medical school. Central to the theme of the novel, McGee explores the world of the resurrectionists and their doings. - In Jonathan L. Howards novel Johannes Cabal the NecromancerJohannes Cabal the NecromancerJohannes Cabal the Necromancer is a 2009 supernatural fiction novel written by Jonathan L. Howard. It follows Johannes Cabal, necromancer, in his attempt to win back his soul from Satan with the help of his brother Horst and an evil traveling carnival.-External links:* * *...
, the eponymous protagonist practices body snatching.
In music
- The Pet Shop BoysPet Shop BoysPet Shop Boys are an English electronic dance music duo, consisting of Neil Tennant, who provides main vocals, keyboards and occasional guitar, and Chris Lowe on keyboards....
's song The Resurrectionist appeared as a bonus track on their first single from their 2006 album FundamentalFundamental (Pet Shop Boys album)Fundamental is the sixteenth album, the ninth of entirely new music, by the British band Pet Shop Boys. It was released in May 2006 in the United Kingdom, Europe, Japan, and Canada, and was released in late June 2006 in the United States. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number five on 28...
, I'm with stupid. The track is inspired by the book The Italian Boy: Murder and Grave-Robbery in 1830s London by Sarah Wise. (See London BurkersLondon BurkersThe London Burkers were a group of body snatchers, operating in London, who apparently modelled their activities on those of the notorious Burke and Hare...
.) - The second track on RadioheadRadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's 2007 album In RainbowsIn RainbowsIn Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...
is titled "Bodysnatchers"Bodysnatchers (song)"Bodysnatchers" is a song by English rock band Radiohead and is the second track on their 2007 album In Rainbows. The song was released alongside "House of Cards" as a promotional single from In Rainbows in late June 2008...
. - A song by the band LeathermouthLeathermouthLeathermouth was the hardcore side project led by My Chemical Romance's rhythm guitarist Frank Iero. The band formed in 2007, and in January 2009 released their first album XO.-History:...
is called Bodysnatchers Forever. - Horrorpunk bands The Misfits, Creature Feature and Wednesday 13Wednesday 13Joseph Poole, better known as Wednesday 13 , is a rock musician from Charlotte, North Carolina. He is most famous for his role as the frontman of the Murderdolls...
have songs about grave-robbing, for example "Dig up Her BonesDig Up Her Bones"Dig Up Her Bones" is the seventh single by the horror punk band the Misfits. It was the first single released by the re-formed lineup of the band, after the original incarnation broke up in 1983...
", "Grave Robber at Large" and "Happily Ever Cadaver", respectively.
In film and television
- In the film Corridors of BloodCorridors of BloodCorridors of Blood is a 1958 horror film directed by Robert Day. The original music score was composed by Buxton Orr. The film was marketed with the tagline "Tops in terror!" in the US where MGM released it as a double feature with Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory.-Plot:An 1840s British surgeon, Dr...
, Christopher LeeChristopher LeeSir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films...
plays a character called "Resurrection Joe". - In Mel BrooksMel BrooksMel Brooks is an American film director, screenwriter, composer, lyricist, comedian, actor and producer. He is best known as a creator of broad film farces and comic parodies. He began his career as a stand-up comic and as a writer for the early TV variety show Your Show of Shows...
' film Young FrankensteinYoung FrankensteinYoung Frankenstein is a 1974 American comedy film directed by Mel Brooks and starring Gene Wilder as the title character, a descendant of the infamous Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The supporting cast includes Teri Garr, Cloris Leachman, Marty Feldman, Peter Boyle, Madeline Kahn, Kenneth Mars, Richard...
, Fredrick Frankenstein and Igor dig up a body to attempt to bring it back to life. - On the television show HouseHouse (TV series)House is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House , an unconventional and misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in...
a group of his medical students take a body from a grave for medical purposes. - In the film The Doctor and the Devils, Timothy DaltonTimothy DaltonTimothy Peter Dalton ) is a Welsh actor of film and television. He is known for portraying James Bond in The Living Daylights and Licence to Kill , as well as Rhett Butler in the television miniseries Scarlett , an original sequel to Gone with the Wind...
plays an anatomist who runs Edinburgh's School of Anatomy in the 19th century. - In the film I Sell the Dead, Dominic MonaghanDominic MonaghanDominic Bernard Patrick Luke Monaghan is an English actor. He has received international attention from playing Merry in Peter Jackson's adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and for his role as Charlie Pace on the television show Lost....
and Larry FessendenLarry Fessenden-Life and career:He is president of Glass Eye Pix, an independent film production company based in New York City. Fessenden produced the Dark Sky film The Inkeepers which is directed by Ti West and the thriller Hypothermia, besides his work as producer he stars in the psychological thriller I Can...
play two men who make a living stealing and selling corpses. - On the television Charmed, three elderly witches, one of which is a family friend of the Halliwells, take many bodies and skin them, using the skin to create a host body for a demon.
See also
- Anatomy murderAnatomy murderAn anatomy murder is a murder committed in order to use all or part of the cadaver for medical research or teaching. It is not a medicine murder because the body parts are not believed to have any medicinal use in themselves. The motive for the murder is created by the demand for cadavers for ...
- FrankensteinFrankensteinFrankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
by Mary ShelleyMary ShelleyMary Shelley was a British novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer, best known for her Gothic novel Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus . She also edited and promoted the works of her husband, the Romantic poet and philosopher Percy Bysshe Shelley... - Grave robbery
- History of medicineHistory of medicineAll human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for birth, death, and disease. Throughout history, illness has been attributed to witchcraft, demons, astral influence, or the will of the gods...
- History of anatomyHistory of anatomyThe development of anatomy as a science extends from the earliest examinations of sacrificial victims to the sophisticated analyses of the body performed by modern scientists. It has been characterized, over time, by a continually developing understanding of the functions of organs and structures...
- Thomas SewallThomas SewallDr. Thomas Sewall was an American doctor, writer and academic. He gained notoriety for being convicted of body snatching, and later went on to become a professor.-Life:...
- Night DoctorsNight DoctorsNight Doctors, also known as night riders, night witches, Ku Klux doctors, and student doctors are bogeymen of African American folklore who emerged from the realities of grave-robbing, medical experimentation, and intimidation rumors spread by southern whites to prevent workers from leaving for...
Further reading
- J B Bailey, editor (1896). The Diary of a Resurrectionist. London. Contains a full bibliography and the regulations in force in foreign countries for the supply of bodies for anatomical purposes, as of its date of publish.
- Vieux Doc (docteur Edmond Grignon) (1930). En guettant les ours : mémoires d'un médecin des Laurentides. Montréal : Éditions Édouard Garand. Digitized by the National Library of QuebecBibliothèque et Archives nationales du QuébecBibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec is the Crown corporation acting as the provincial library and archives of Quebec...
. French language. - Burch, Druin (2007). Digging up the Dead: The Life and Times of Astley Cooper, an Extraordinary Surgeon. Chatto & Windus, London.
- C W Herr, editor (1799). The Horrors of Oakendale AbbeyThe Horrors of Oakendale AbbeyThe Horrors of Oakendale Abbey is a gothic novel by Mrs Carver, written in 1797 and published, in one volume, by the sensationalist Minerva Press. It proved particularly popular with the new travelling libraries of the day. A gothic tale of horror, rather than suspense, it centres on the physical...
. Mrs Carver. Gothic novel about the terror inflicted upon a young woman when she is locked inside a crumbling Abbey used by resurrection men and body snatchers. Published by Zittaw Press. - Richardson, Ruth (2001). Death, Dissection, and the Destitute. Contains excellent information regarding the Anatomy Act and the Resurrectionist's influence upon the urban poor.
- Roach, Mary (2003). "Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers". Contains humorous information regarding the study of anatomy before the Anatomy Act.
- Sappol, Michael (2002). "A traffic of dead bodies": Anatomy and embodied social identity in 19th-century America. Discusses death practices, role of dissection in medical professionalization and science, changes in the law concerning the disposition of bodies, riots against medical schools, popular anatomical texts, popular anatomical museums. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 13: 978-0-691-11875-8.
- In the collection of the Wellcome LibraryWellcome LibraryThe Wellcome Library is founded on the collection formed by Sir Henry Wellcome , whose personal wealth allowed him to create one of the most ambitious collections of the 20th century. Henry Wellcome's interest was the history of medicine in a broad sense and included subjects like alchemy or...
: Thomas Williams, John Bishop and James May, murderers: miscellaneous papers relating to murder of persons in Smithfield area and sale of corpses for dissection. 1831. (MS.7058).
External links
- Injunction: Stolen body burial blocked by executor of will, March 6, 2008, New Zealand Herald
- Echoes of the Scottish Resurrection Men
- Richmond, Virginia's Resurrection Man at Virginia Memory