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...
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Until 1832 dissection-much hated and much feared-was restricted to the corpses of hanged murderers. Bodysnatching was rife. The 1832 Anatomy Act, however, appropriated instead the corpses of the poor, effectively rendering dissection a punishment for poverty. Death, Dissection and the Destitute reveals why fear of the pauper funeral so afflicted the nineteenth-century poor. Ruth Richardson's book opens rich prospects in history and the history of science. Her new afterword draws important parallels between historical and current concerns about the body, organs for transplant, and human tissue for research.
AcknowledgmentsIntroductionIThe Body1The Corpse and Popular Culture32The Corpse as an Anatomical Object303The Corpse as a Commodity52IIThe Act4The Sanctity of the Grave Asserted755Foregone Conclusions1006'Trading Assassins'1317Alternative Necrology1598Bringing 'Science to the Poor Man's Door'193IIIThe Aftermath9The Act 'is Uninjurious if Unknown'21910The Bureaucrat's Bad Dream23911The Unpardonable Offence261Appendices285References294Bibliography378Afterword409Index435
