The Anatomy Act

In 1815 the Apothecaries act determined all apothecaries (G.P’s) should be licensed. Not only did they need to attend lectured in Anatomy, medical theory and practice but they were to undertake six months bedside watch. By 1830 400 people a year were taking the LSA (Licence of Society of Apothecaries).

One of the problems with the rapidly growing field of anatomy was the lack of bodies, and famous anatomists such as Robert Knox fell foul of the body snatchers who would resurrect bodies for a price.

The most famous were a pair of flat mates called William Burke and William Hare. When an old man died in their house, they thought of bypassing the grave and selling directly to the anatomists. Later they turned to murder and suffocated their victims to conceal foul play. The price was £7 each. They were bought to justice, Burke was striped flayed and his skin was sold by the strip. The final body was found in Knox’s dissecting room. The public burned his house and forced him to flee.

The fight for the dead bodies of the diseased were fought for from about 1829. A bill passed the House of Commons but was stopped in the Lords as it was unfair on the poor.

The anatomy act in 1832 gave the anatomists the right to claim unclaimed bodies. But it did more than that. It was a landmark in the acceptance of doctors need to knowledge of the make up of the human body. It nearly stopped the illegal trade of bodies. Regional inspectors kept the law and dissection was only permissible with the acceptance of the next of kin and must be greater than 48 hours after death. However murderer’s were used previously for dissection so for the poor the stigma of being used medically was an extra insult. In workhouses inmates could sign and write a declaration in  front of two wittiness to prevent they body being used but as many were illiterate this proved worthless.

Had the act allowed for an opting ‘in’ instead of by default the act would have failed. (Richardson 1991). What’s more the consequences were a stigma for punishment and poor once more paying for there wealth. Secondly more dissection was done, outstripping the number of bodies and which lead to body snatching again and the fight between hospital school and private teaching clinic in which the hospital school won. It lead to trying to  preserve bodies for longer and utilisation of formaldehydes to do so.
The apothecaries also lost out as it was the physicians surgeons who were allowed to claim bodies not them. It placed one more wedge between them.
Finally the act caused public riots, burning of anatomists houses and their schools.

The tradition of anatomy lived on and Henry Grey who later died of smallpox produced his works in 1858.

Overall the public has changed with time to give there body up to dissection.