Possessing the Dead: The Artful Science of AnatomyWith a rare blend of curiosity, delight in the unexpected, and an eye for detail, this account explores the disturbing history of the cadaver trade in Australia, England, and Scotland. Drawing on a rich array of material and using Australian Aboriginal cricketer Charles RoseÍs 1868 death in London as an example this examination argues that no corpse lying in a workhouse, hospital, or asylum was entirely safe from interference despite the established laws that gave certain officials possession of the dead. Intriguing and informative, this chronicle reveals a gruesome past and the chicanery at play behind the procuring of bodies for dissections, autopsies, and collections. |
Contents
An Act for Regulating Schools of Anatomy 1832 | 11 |
After the Murders | 15 |
Dr Robert Knox | 21 |
Charity Work House | 27 |
Inspector Woods Letter Book | 38 |
A Body Buried is a Body Wasted | 43 |
An Anatomists Dissecting Room | 46 |
HMS Grampus | 56 |
Truganini | 127 |
James Wilson Agnew | 141 |
Dr Belgrave and Humanitys Discards | 152 |
Dr Stuart | 153 |
Hales Experiment | 178 |
The Governments Bodies | 185 |
The Medical Students | 195 |
Professor Turners Skullery | 205 |
Trafficking in the Dead | 74 |
Newington Workhouse | 78 |
The Morbid Anatomist | 94 |
Sir Samuel Wilks | 102 |
Aboriginal Cricketers alongside Melbourne Cricket | 114 |
Truganinis Skin | 125 |
Dealing with the Dead | 216 |
Notes | 231 |
Bibliography | 261 |
Acknowledgements | 280 |
Common terms and phrases
Aboriginal addition Adelaide Alcock Alfred anatomists Anatomy Act anatomy inspector argued arrived asked Australian authorities Bacot become Belgrave bodies British burial buried cause charge Charles claimed coffin collection College Colonial corpses court Craigie Crowther dead death died dispose dissection Edinburgh England evidence examination Feist friends funeratory given grave ground guardians Guy’s hand Home hospital human institutions instructed interest James January John knew later learned letter London March Mary matter medical school murder Museum needed obtained Office parish patients performed person pointed poor possession post-mortem practice Professor received recorded relatives remains removed Roberts Royal Scotland Secretary sent September 1903 skin Smith Society Somerville soon South specimens Stuart subjects supply Surgeons Sydney taken teachers things thought took Truganini’s turned undertaker Wilks workhouse wrote young