Body-Snatchers, Resurrectionists, and Sack-'em-Up Men
Because of the growth of anatomy schools and the decrease of people being executed, the amount of bodies for dissection was greatly lower than the amount needed. To compensate, some professors and students would allow their class to dissect bodies of their loved ones. Others stole bodies from graves and brought them to their medical schools, believing that no one owned the body and if they leave the material objects in the grave, it was not stealing. After realizing how much money this business could be worth, people outside of the medical field began to steal bodies and sell them to medical schools. The general population feared and despised these "resurrection men".
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Many of London’s burial grounds were in an appalling condition, stuffed far beyond capacity – the oozing soil was easy to rob. The poor, unable to afford protection in death, were particularly vulnerable to the body snatchers, the most successful of which took a very business-like approach to their trade. Public fears about body snatching were complex. Christian beliefs about life after death added to the terror of being cut into pieces by the surgeons. Being sold for dissection was a shameful fate. - Museum of London In the 17th and 18th centuries body snatching reached epic proportions around the world. There was a reduction in executions, the traditional source of cadavers. There was also, simultaneously, a proliferation of medical schools and the study of anatomy. Poor refrigeration methods meant a deficit of fresh bodies for medical study. Furthermore, the punishment was minimal – the convicted were given a fine or imprisoned. -The PBS History Detectives Gentlemen, I have been told that some of you in your zeal have contemplated carrying off the body. I |
The study of anatomy laid bare an uncomfortable tension in 19th-century medicine. In the eyes of local communities, grave robbing turned doctors into vultures. Burial and respect for the dead mattered deeply to most Americans. -Emily Bezelon, Legal Affairs Few burial grounds in Scotland, it is believed, have escaped the ravaging hands of resurrection men; and it is reported that with respect to a church-yard not far from Edinburgh, that, till within three years ago, when the inhabitants began to watch the graves, the persons interred did not remain in their graves above a night, and that these depredations were successfully carried on for nine successive winters. -Rev.W. Fleming, West Calder, Scotland. 1821 |
By 1760, it had become customary in the anatomical schools for students to |