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Body Snatching In Philadelphia: A Social And Cultural History, 1762-1883, Timothy R. Dewysockie

Theses and Dissertations

In 18th-century Philadelphia the first medical school in the thirteen British colonies was established. However, cadavers for dissection could only be obtained involuntarily, a posthumous punishment generally reserved for murderers and suicides. Body snatching, the disinterment of corpses for dissection, immediately became a problem because legal sources of "subjects" did not meet demand. Body snatching was resisted in popular representations and the actions of everyday citizens in riots, petitions, and other forms of protest. However, in the late 19th century the requisition of "unclaimed" bodies for dissection - that is, dead "paupers" - became enshrined in Pennsylvania's 1883 Anatomy Act, …