Bodies from Liverpool to Edinburgh: By Land or Sea.

Abstract

Learning anatomy was a basic requirement in nineteenth-century medical education, carried out through dissection of human cadavers. There was only a restricted number of cadavers legally available, which encouraged the trade of bodysnatching from local cemeteries. Even this did not give sufficient 'subjects' for the needs of Edinburgh's anatomy schools, so attempts were made to 'recover' bodies from further afield. This chapter looks at attempts to transfer 'resurrected' bodies from Liverpool to Edinburgh, by land or sea, based on newspaper accounts of such activities made at the time of their discovery.