150 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



School, Mr. Terrel; The Great Windmill Street School, Caesar 

 Hawkins and Herbert Mayo, and the Blenheim or Great Marl- 

 borough Street School, Joshua Brookes (Guttmacher, '35). In 

 addition, there were also several fly-by-night places, diploma mills, 

 which tried to teach anatomy without benefit of theatres, mu- 

 seums, libraries or dissecting-rooms. Eight-hundred bodies were 

 needed annually to supply the students matriculated in these medi- 

 cal schools. There was competition between them because there 

 was money to be made in the teaching of gross anatomy. 



With the great increase in the number of medical students, 

 who were required to anatomize in Great Britain, it is obvious 

 that the supply of cadavers obtained through legal means was 

 highly insufficient. Between 1805 and 1820, there were 1,150 

 executions in England and Wales, an average of less than eighty 

 per year. There were an average of 1,000 students present an- 

 nually in London alone (Guttmacher, '35; Wakley, 1829). 



In 1828 there were 800 students in London, with 500 dissect- 

 ing on 475 available bodies, most of which were acquired il- 

 legally. Ten resurrectionists were regularly employed; 200 others 

 were occasionally involved. The average price of subjects was 

 four guineas (Bailey, 1896). 



The following year, two anatomical schools located in the 

 West End of London and those in Sheffield, Bristol, Liverpool 

 and Manchester closed due to lack of bodies. Even at this late date, 

 the whole city was invited to attend public dissections (Edi- 

 torial, 1829). 



The private anatomical schools, which were in the majority, 

 and which for the most part were conducted by the ablest teach- 

 ers, were not too popular with some of the standardizing boards. 

 The Royal College of Surgeons passed a bylaw in 1824 requiring 

 that attendance at anatomy sessions be compulsory and that cer- 

 tificates verifying this, be signed by an appointed anatomy pro- 

 fessor in the universities or a person teaching in an acceptable 

 medical establishment. This was unsuccessful in eradicating the 

 private institutions because the organization was apparently losing 

 stature in the profession. Its charter was temporarily abolished be- 

 cause of monopolistic policies (Ball, '28; Sprigge, 1897; Wakley, 

 1829). 



