The History of Medical Cadavers: Never enough bodies

How did all those bones end up in a pit at Fort Mason? The Anatomy Act, that’s how! In this episode, Courtney takes us through the history of using human cadavers to learn about medicine — whether people liked it or not. What started out as punishment for criminal acts turned into punishment for being poor. We’ll talk about how this practice evolved from England to the US, from the East Coast to the West, and how the bodies of the poor and marginalized fed the study of medicine and anatomy.

Links & References

Death, Dissection, and the Destitute by Ruth Richardson

The Butchering Art by Lindsay Fitzharris

Archaeology and Bioarchaeology of Anatomical Dissection at a Nineteenth-Century Army Hospital in San Francisco by Willey et al

On Penn’s dubious collection of human remains

China Turns Out Mummified Bodies for Display

Surgeon’s Hall Museum, Edinburgh - home of Burke’s death mask

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Reuters Investigates: The Body Trade

Photo of a Mortsafe

A note from Courtney On Mathus:

The Malthusian theory - sometimes called the Malthusian trap - posits that if population growth outpaces agricultural production, famine will result, which will lead to more poverty and declining birth rates, leading to societal collapse. His work was used to justify eugenic forms of population control (Including the New Poor Acts) - and although Malthusianism has since come to be identified with the issue of general over-population, the original Malthusian concern was more specifically with the fear of over-population by the dependent poor. Still not a fan.