Death, Dissection and the Destitute - Softcover

Richardson, Ruth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226712400 ISBN 13: 9780226712406

Publisher: University Of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

Death, Dissection and the Destitute In the early 19th century, body snatching was rife because the only corpses available for medical study were those of hanged murderers. With the Anatomy Act of 1832 the bodies of those who died destitute in workhouses were appropriated for dissection. This text explores this history. Full description

About this title

About the Author:

Ruth Richardson is a historian living in London.

From the Inside Flap:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226712400
• ISBN 13: 9780226712406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 472