[XIII] 



HUMAN DISSECTION IN ENGLAND-AD. 

 1510 to 1958 



O 



ne of the first kings to do anything about human dissection 

 in England was Henry VIII. When he first came into power in 

 1509, he granted the collegiate medical schools of Oxford and 

 Cambridge the privilege of issuing licenses for medical and sur- 

 gical practice. In 1512, he put all practitioners, except graduates 

 of the above two academic institutions under the surveillance of 

 the Church. Six years later (1518), he gave the Royal College of 

 Physicians its first charter which declared that it could also func- 

 tion independently of the Church. The Barber-Surgeons Com 

 pany, organized in 1540, was not left out of consideration, in this 

 respect. Parliament and Henry VIII made it legal for them to ob- 

 tain four bodies of executed criminals per year, to be used for dis- 

 section and teaching. Attendance was open to the public and com 

 pulsory to members; they were held with much pomp and cere 

 mony. 



The real founder of anatomy in England is considered to he 

 John Caius (1513-1573). He was a native of Norwich, England 

 and a graduate of Cambridge. His medicine was studied at the 

 University of Padua,, in Italy. It is possible that he may have been 

 influenced in deciding on a medical career by Vesalius, with 

 whom he lodged for eight months while at Padua. At least, he 

 gave up a professorship in Greek there and made the change 

 (Ball, '28; Guttmacher, '35; King, '18; South, 1886). 



Caius returned to England in 1541 and was summoned bv 

 Henry VIII to give anatomical lectures to the London sm^eons 

 at the Barber-Surgeon's Hall. Through his influence, he was ahh 

 to obtain the bodies of four executed criminals annually Im iIh 

 Company. He was instrumental in laying a solid found. »i ion loi 



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