THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Nelo Series. 
Vou. VI] OCTOBER, 1828. [No. 34. 
REPORT FROM THE DISSECTION COMMITTEE, 
So revolting is the practice of exhumation—the trade of dragging dead 
bodies from the grave for the purpose of dissection—that a very unusual 
combination of official and private opposition has risen up against it ; 
and the church-yards in and about London are, in consequence, more and 
more effectually blocked up against the depredators. The employer and 
his desperate agent encounter the same degree of popular odium, and the 
craft of both is in imminent danger of utter and speedy extinction. The 
anatomists are driven to their wits’ end: from the lack of subjects, some 
abandon their lectures, and all occasionally suspend them ; students fly 
to other countries ; and the character of the profession itself is at stake. 
The very law is suddenly armed against them ; and the mere possession 
of a dead body for dissection, except that of a murderer, is declared to 
be a misdemeanor. The government, indeed, winked at importations, 
and generously sacrificed its ad valorem duties for the benefit of science ; 
but in vain. The very importations have failed of their purpose ; and 
the legislature itself—the dernier resort—has been appealed to. Peti- 
tions poured in by scores from every point of the medical compass ; and 
a Committee, graciously appointed for the purpose, have summoned 
before them the leading members of the profession, hospital-surgeons, 
lecturers on anatomy, body-snatchers themselves, and Bow-street officers. 
They have inquired, with an ab ovo beginning, into the utility and 
the necessity of anatemy—the indispensableness of a supply of sub- 
_jects—the modes hitherto adopted for obtaining them—the objections to 
those modes—the practice of foreign countries—the numbers demanded 
—and, finally, the practicability of furnishing those numbers, without 
outraging the public feeling by exhumation. The Committee having 
thus collected and reported, the evidence is now before the world; and 
_ we wait but the next session to place the profession at ease, and on a 
__ legitimate basis. - 
r Tn the number for May last, before the appointment of the Committee, 
ect was carefully discussed in this Magazine ; and, so far as 
cts the imperativeness of the case, and the practicability of furnish- 
ing without offence an adequate supply, apparently exhausted. The 
result of the inquiries instituted by the Committee terminated in recom- 
_ mending the uNcLarmep BoprEs of the workhouses, hospitals, prisons, and 
M.M. New Series—Vou. VI. No. 34. eS 
