Are you viewer 6000
Wow what is that
big round yellow thing up there in the sky?
Could it be… could
it really be the sun.
Yup that is exactly
what it is. And not only that the temperature is not in negative numbers.
Could it be that
the big April freeze is over? Let’s hope so.
This morning The
Man and I went off to the London Museum to see a gruesome sounding exhibition
calle Doctors, Dissections and resurrection Men. I’ve been wanting to see it
ever since I saw the adds for it, Well wouldn’t you? Read this…
In 2006, Museum of
London archaeologists excavated a burial ground at the Royal London Hospital in
Whitechapple. What they found was bot extraordinary and unexpected
The excavation revealed some 262 burials. In the
confusing mix of bones was extensive evidence of dissection, autopsy and
amputation, bones wired for teaching, and animals dissected for comparative
anatomy. Dating from a key period – that of the Anatomy Act of 1832 – the
discovery is one of the most significant in the UK, offering fresh insight into
early 19th century dissection and the trade in dead bodies.
Now, 180 years later, you can uncover this
intriguing story in Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men, a major
exhibition at the Museum of London. Bringing together human and animal remains,
exquisite anatomical models and drawings, documents and original artefacts, the
exhibition reveals the intimate relationship between surgeons pushing forward
anatomical study and the bodysnatchers who supplied them; and the shadowy
practices prompted by a growing demand for corpses.
And it was really
interesting, and amazing. Dissection was in its infancy a very controversial subject.
But how were surgeons to learn about the secrets of the human body without
looking at real specimens. It was a real case of dammed if you do and dammed if
you don’t because if they mucked thing up they would be very unpopular, if not actually
legally liable.
You may have herd of Burke
and Hare, who took body snatching to a hgher level by committing murder to improve
their supply of fresh corpses for the dissectionists. In fact it came to be
known as Burking.
These
men are universally believed to have beenbody-snatcher but in fact they made a good living in the
1820s supplying an Edinburgh’s anatomy school with dead bodies obtained by
murder
William Burke and William Hare never were grave-robbers. They are reputed to have hit upon their calling by accident: an old man died owing rent in Mrs Hare's cheap lodging house, and the men decided to recoup the money by selling the corpse. They were welcomed at Dr Knox's anatomy school, and the £7.10s they were paid amply covered the debt. Burke later confessed that ‘that was the only subject they sold that they did not murder, and getting that high price made them try the murdering of subjects.’ Soon afterwards, when another lodger fell ill, they helped him on his way with whisky, and smothered him. This first successful murder probably took place in December 1827, and Burke and Hare were paid £10 for the body. The deaths of a further fifteen individuals — twelve women, two handicapped youths, and an old man — followed.
The
Burke and Hare murders are critically significant to the history of anatomy in
Britain. They represent the apotheosis of the market in human flesh. The
murders reveal that by the late 1820s, the poor were worth more dead than
alive. A further 60 murders (by the ‘London Burkers’ Bishop and Williams, in
1831) occurred before the Anatomy Act of 1832 provided the anatomists with a
free supply of corpses requisitioned from Poor Law workhouses.
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