Resurrectionists in the United Kingdom

Resurrectionists were commonly employed by anatomists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between 1506 and 1752 only a very few cadavers were available each year for anatomical research. In response to the discovery in 1831 of a gang known as the London Burkers, Parliament debated a bill. Although it did not make body snatching illegal, the resulting Act of Parliament effectively put an end to the work of the resurrectionists.

About Resurrectionists in the United Kingdom in brief

Resurrectionists were commonly employed by anatomists in the 18th and 19th centuries. Between 1506 and 1752 only a very few cadavers were available each year for anatomical research. In an attempt to intensify the deterrent effect of the death penalty, Parliament passed the Murder Act 1752. By allowing judges to substitute the public display of executed criminals with dissection, the new law significantly increased the number of bodies anatomist could legally access. This proved insufficient to meet the needs of the hospitals and teaching centres that opened in the UK during the18th century. In response to the discovery in 1831 of a gang known as the London Burkers, Parliament debated a bill submitted by Henry Warburton, author of the Select Committee’s report. Although it did not make body snatching illegal, the resulting Act of Parliament effectively put an end to the work of the resurrectionists by allowing anatomistic access to workhouse dead. The first recorded anatomisation of a cadaver took place in Bologna in the 14th century, but until then, anatomical research was limited to the dissection of animals. In Britain, human dissection was proscribed by law until 1506, when King James IV of Scotland gave royal patronage to the Barber-Surgeons of Edinburgh, allowing them to dissect the bodies of certain executed criminals. In 1540, Henry VIII allowed them access to four executed felons each year. Elizabeth I granted the College of Physicians the right to anatomise four felons annually in 1564.

Riots at execution sites were commonplace; in 1749 the Sheriff of London ignored the dead and gave the dead to surgeons and gave them to their relatives. These problems, together with a desire to enhance the deterrent Effect of the Death penalty, resulted in the passage of the 1752 Act. It required that every murderer shall, after execution, be either dissected or hung in chains. Dissection was generally viewed as worse than death; judges gave the ability to substitute gibbeting for dissection. Suicide victims were given over, as were infants who had died while being born and also unclaimed bodies of abandoned children. But even though they were supported by the common law, anatOMists occasionally found it difficult to collect what was granted to them. The bodies of paupers were also given over. In 1694, Edinburgh allowed anatomians to dissect corpses of such as die violent deaths who shall have nobody to own them . Suicide victims and unclaimed children were given to surgeons in Edinburgh. But the bodies were sometimes sometimes ignored by surgeons and given to the relatives of those who had committed suicide. In 1749, the Sheriff of London ignored their relatives and gave  the bodies to surgeons and gave the dead to the surgeons. This led to the death of some of their relatives, and some surgeons gave some of them to surgeons. In 1828, Parliament responded by setting up the 1828 Select Committee on anatomy, whose report emphasised the importance of anatomical science.

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