ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Dissecting the 1832 Anatomy Act

• In Event: Contested Anatomy

English Abstract

The Anatomy Murders of the 1820s and early 1830s, of which Burke and Hare were the most high-profile example, gave impetus to politicians to find a new legal source for cadavers for teaching and study. This led to the Anatomy Act of 1832, which has been widely studied. The Anatomy Act did not arise from these murders, however, which had earlier origins than William Burke and William Hare. This paper will contextualise the Act beyond these murders by looking at the wider anatomical framework in the UK. In particular, I will examine the way that the previous legislation supplying cadavers for anatomical teaching, the 1752 ‘Murder Act’, was enacted in Scotland, showing that there were more factors at play than these high-profile crimes. The ‘Murder Act’ codified into law of the association of dissection with crime and punishment, and this both reflected and fuelled a fear of dissection. In spite of this there were examples of early body donation, something which the 1832 Anatomy Act did not give provision for.

Today cadaveric teaching in the UK uses donated bodies. I will explore what the Anatomy Act meant in terms of ideas of consent, and how that intersects with modern museological interpretation of nineteenth-century medical collections.

Author

• Cat Irving, Surgeons Hall