Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England (Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife) - Hardcover

Book 3 of 9: Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife

Hurren, Elizabeth T.

 
9781137582485: Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England (Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1137582480 ISBN 13: 9781137582485
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016

Synopsis

Those convicted of homicide were hanged on the public gallows before being dissected under the Murder Act in Georgian England. Yet, from 1752, whether criminals actually died on the hanging tree or in the dissection room remained a medical mystery in early modern society. Dissecting the Criminal Corpse takes issue with the historical cliché of corpses dangling from the hangman’s rope in crime studies. Some convicted murderers did survive execution in early modern England. Establishing medical death in the heart-lungs-brain was a physical enigma. Criminals had large bull-necks, strong willpowers, and hearty survival instincts. Extreme hypothermia often disguised coma in a prisoner hanged in the winter cold. The youngest and fittest were capable of reviving on the dissection table. Many died under the lancet. Capital legislation disguised a complex medical choreography that surgeons staged. They broke the Hippocratic Oath by executing the Dangerous Dead across England from 1752 until 1832. 


This book is open access under a CC-BY license. 

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author

Elizabeth T. Hurren is Reader in the Medical Humanities at the University of Leicester, UK, and an expert on the history of the body, medicine, poverty and welfare in Europe from early modern to modern times. She has published two major books since 2007, Protesting about Pauperism: Poverty, Politics and Poor Relief in Late-Victorian England and Dying for Victorian Medicine: English Anatomy and Its Trade in the Dead Poor, c. 1832 to 1929.

From the Back Cover

Those convicted of homicide were hanged on the public gallows before being dissected under the Murder Act in Georgian England. Yet, from 1752, whether criminals actually died on the hanging tree or in the dissection room remained a medical mystery in early modern society. Dissecting the Criminal Corpse takes issue with the historical cliché of corpses dangling from the hangman’s rope in crime studies. Some convicted murderers did survive execution in early modern England. Establishing medical death in the heart-lungs-brain was a physical enigma. Criminals had large bullnecks, strong willpowers, and hearty survival instincts. Extreme hypothermia often disguised coma in a prisoner hanged in the winter cold. The youngest and fittest were capable of reviving on the dissection table. Many died under the lancet. Capital legislation disguised a complex medical choreography that surgeons staged. They broke the Hippocratic Oath by executing the Dangerous Dead across England from 1752 until 1832. 


This book is open access under a CC-BY license.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
Publication date
2016
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1137582480
ISBN 13 
9781137582485
Binding
Hardcover
Edition number
1
Number of pages
356

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9781349845040: Dissecting the Criminal Corpse: Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England (Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife)

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  1349845043 ISBN 13:  9781349845040
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016
Softcover