 |
|
|
 | |
Detail from T. Cook's engraving, entitled "The Execution of the idle apprentice at Tyburn", 1747
© The Wellcome Trust
|
| |  |
Bodysnatching for Cambridge anatomy |
 |
The career of bodysnatcher
The occupation of bodysnatcher (or resurrectionist) emerged because while the study of human anatomy had risen greatly in importance since the Renaissance, only one source of corpses had the sanction of the law. Governments since Henry VIII allowed a certain number of hanged murderers to be consigned to anatomists at the Royal Colleges of Physic and Surgery. In Caius College, Cambridge, a room still exists in which Sir John Caius himself is believed to have undertaken human dissections in the Elizabethan era.
Sir John Caius, 1510-1573
© The Wellcome Trust |
Dissection was regarded with great fear and horror by lawmakers and public alike, described in law as a “further terror” superadded to execution, a “peculiar (or special) Mark of Infamy”, a fate much worse than death. It served to stigmatise murder over other capital crimes, denying murderers the comfort of a grave – the law explicitly stated ‘in no case whatsoever the body of any murderer shall be suffered to be buried’ – which was tantamount to saying that their spirit would find no rest.
As medical student numbers rose over the course of the 18th Century, and as their training involved more hands-on dissection, demand for fresh corpses rose, the inadequacy of legal provision became evident. Medical students certainly undertook nocturnal grave-robbing expeditions themselves, but the task became more professional when the public became alert to it, and installed spring guns and mantraps, paid watchmen with blunderbusses and dogs, and installed lights, watch-towers, high walls and other security features.
Words: Dr Ruth Richardson
Your comments
| |
 Print this page |
|
Archive
Look back into the past using the Legacies' archives. Find nearly 200 tales from around the country in our collection.
Read more > |
| | |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
| The 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external Web sites. |
| | | |
| | |
| |
|
