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Human Remains: Dissection and Its Histories
by Helen MacDonald
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About This Book
ISBN13: 9780300116991 |
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Until 1832, when an Act of Parliament began to regulate the use of bodies for anatomy in Britain, public dissection was regularly, and legally, carried out on the bodies of murderers, and a shortage of cadavers gave rise to the infamous murders committed by Burke and Hare to supply dissection subjects to Dr. Robert Knox, the anatomist.
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
Until 1832, when an Act of Parliament began to regulate the use of bodies for anatomy in Britain, public dissection was regularly, and legally, carried out on the bodies of murderers, and a shortage of cadavers gave rise to the infamous murders committed by Burke and Hare to supply dissection subjects to Dr. Robert Knox, the anatomist.
This book tells the scandalous story of how medical men obtained the corpses upon which they worked before the use of human remains was regulated. Helen MacDonald looks particularly at the activities of British surgeons in nineteenth-century Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in which a ready supply of bodies was available. Not only convicted murderers, but also Aborigines and the unfortunate poor who died in hospitals were routinely turned over to the surgeons.
This sensitive but searing account shows how abuses happen even within the conventions adopted by civilized societies. It reveals how, from Burke and Hare to today’s televised dissections by German anatomist Dr. Gunther von Hagens, some people’s bodies become other people’s entertainment.
Book News Annotation:
MacDonald (Australian Centre, U. of Melbourne) takes a close look at
how bodies were procured, traded for favors, treated and viewed by
19th-century medical men and by their broader society. She focuses on
the penal colony Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), which supplied
Aboriginal bodies to British men of science, to illustrate the ways
human remains have sometimes been stripped of their sacred meaning in
the name of science and even in the name of entertainment.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Book News Annotation:
MacDonald (Australian Centre, U. of Melbourne) takes a close look at
how bodies were procured, traded for favors, treated and viewed by
19th-century medical men and by their broader society. She focuses on
the penal colony Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), which supplied
Aboriginal bodies to British men of science, to illustrate the ways
human remains have sometimes been stripped of their sacred meaning in
the name of science and even in the name of entertainment.
Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Review:
"[T]his is a book that can be enjoyed by anyone who has a strong stomach....MacDonald gives a colourful account of the great bone collectors and the world of dissection in the 19th century." The Sunday Telegraph
Review:
"A nuanced and subtle enquiry into the politics and morality of the dissecting room." Age
Review:
"Chillingly gothic...compellingly readable." The Australian
Synopsis:
Bone collecting, body snatching, and the buying and selling of human remains have seldom been acknowledged as vital parts in the development of Western medicine. In this elegantly written account, the British medical systems' dependence upon the penal colony of Tasmania for anatomy training is explored. The lives of the poor who were routinely turned over to surgeons for study and the brisk trade in the remains of Aboriginal people are also investigated. Unlike other histories of medicine, this study looks at the way anatomy was intertwined with art, pleasure, punishment, and most importantly, the wielding of power. Illustrated with 19th-century engravings, sketches and photographs, this work captures the popular imagination and taps into the current fascination with all things forensic.
About the Author
Helen MacDonald is a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian Centre, University of Melbourne.
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Product Details
- ISBN:
- 9780300116991
- Subtitle:
- Dissection and Its Histories
- Author:
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- Subject:
- History
- Subject:
- Forensic Medicine
- Subject:
- Human dissection
- Subject:
- General Medical
- Copyright:
- 2006
- Publication Date:
- September 2006
- Binding:
- HC
- Language:
- English
- Illustrations:
- Y
- Pages:
- 224
- Dimensions:
- 9.26x6.44x.99 in. 1.20 lbs.
