ANAT'WEY (in law). While the study and practice of A., or the art of dissecting the human body, were necessary to the pursuit of surgical knowledge, there were, until the year 1832, no sufficient legal means in Britain of procuring dead bodies for anatomical purposes; and the consequence was, the evasion, and sometimes even the open violation of the law by persons interested in supplying 'the surgical profession with subjects for dissection. The high prices, indeed, given for these subjects, may almost be said to have created a lucrative and tempting trade, which led to the most atrocious crimes; and murders, with no other object than the possession of the victim's body for the surgeon's knife, were frequently committed. The notorious case of Burke, tried and convicted before the high court of justiciary in Edinburgh, in 1828, is a horrible illustration of the state of the law at that time, and of the position in which it placed surgical practitioners. It was believed that Burke and his associate Hare had been the murderers of sixteen persons, whose bodies they sold to the anatomists. It was their practice to inveigle poor people, generally strangers, into their houses, make them drunk, and then smother them. Burke, informed against by Hare, was condemned for thus disposing of an old woman, and suffered the last penalty of the law, bequeathing a new verb, to Lurke, to the English language. To remedy this state of things, an act of parliament was passed on the 1st of Aug., 1832, 2d and 3d William IV. c. 75, the preamble of which, sufficiently disclosing its necessity, is as follows: "Whereas, a knowledge of the causes and nature of sundry diseases which affect the body, and of the best methods of treating and curing such diseases, and of healing and repairing divers wounds and injuries to which the human frame is liable, cannot be acquired without the aid of anatomical examination: and whereas, the legal supply of human bodies for such anatomical examination is insufficient fully to provide the means of such knowledge: and whereas, in order further to supply human bodies for such purposes, divers great and grievous crimes have been com mitted, and, lately, murder, for the single object of selling for such purposes the bodies of the persons so murdered: and whereas, therefore, it is highly expedient to give protec tion, under certain regulations, to the study and practice of A., and to prevent, as far as may be, such great and grievous crimes and murder as aforesaid "—It is therefore enacted, that the secretary of state for the home department in Great Britain, and the chief secretary in Ireland, may grant a license to practice A. to any fellow or member of any college of physicians or surgeons, or to any graduate or licentiate in medicine, or to any person lawfully qualified to practice medicine in any part of the United Kingdom, or to any professor or teacher .of A., medicine, or surgery, or to any student attending any school of A., on the application of such party for such purpose, countersigned by two justices of the peace acting for the county, city, borough, or place where such party resides, certifying that, to their knowledge or belief, such party so'applying is about to carry on the practice of A. The act provides for the appointment of inspectors of
schools of A., and directs them to make a. quarterly return to the secretary of state, or the chief secretary, as the case may be, of subjects removed for anatomical examination to every place in the inspector's district where A. is carried on, distinguishing the sex, and, as far as is known at the time, the name and age of each person whose body was so removed. The inspectors are further required to visit.and inspect places within. their respective districts where A. is practiced; and for the performance of all these duties, the inspectors are each to have an annual salary not exceeding £100, with a further reasonable sum for their official expenses. By section 7, it is enacted that it shall be lawful for any executor or other party having lawful possession of the body of any deceased person, and not being an undertaker or other party intrusted with the body, for the purpose only of interment, to permit the body of such deceased person to undergo anatomical examina tion, unless, to the knowledge of such executor or other party, such person shall have expressed his desire, either in writing, at any time during his life, or verbally, in the presence of two or more witnesses, during the illness whereof he died, that his body, after death, might not undergo such examination; or unless the surviving husband or wife, or any known relative of the deceased person, shall require the body to be interred without such examination: while, by section 8, it is declared that the wishes of persons who had expressed a desire that their bodies should be subjected to anatomical exami nation shall be respected, unless the deceased person's surviving husband or wife. or nearest known relative, or any one or more of such person's nearest known relatives being of kin in the same degree, shall require the body to be interred without such examination. Bodies are not to be removed for examination until 48 hours after death, and without a certificate by the medical attendant, stating, according to the best of his knowledge or belief, the manner or cause of death. The act contains a number of provisions intended to secure its sufficient administration; but, by section 15, it is provided that it shall not extend to or prohibit any post-mortem examination of any human body required or directed to be made by any competent legal authority; and it repeals an enactment in a previous statute, 9 George IV. c. 31, which directed the bodies of murderers after execution to be dissected.
This act of parliament is understood to have met the evil it was designed to obviate; and under it the supply of bodies of persons dying friendless, in poor-houses, hospitals, and elsewhere, is stated to have proved sufficient for the wants of the profession.