HUMAN DISSECTION IN SCOTLAND-A.D. 1500 TO 1958 179 



disease, so that there was always danger from contact with them. 

 During the period of 1831-1832, cholera spread throughout the 

 city of Edinburgh, causing such a high mortality among the pop- 

 ulation that a sufficient number of coffins and bearers could hardly 

 be obtained to bury the dead. In spite of this, the Edinburgh anat- 

 omists accepted every unclaimed subject, even those coming di- 

 rectly from the wards of a hospital. For a period, Knox's dissection- 

 room contained none other than those holding the virus of this 

 malady, yet, all this time, there was a clamor against the anat- 

 omists, particularly from the lower classes. Lonsdale (1870) stated 

 that they were not only blind to their interests but could not 

 evaluate, on a rational basis, the manifold benefits they received 

 from the medical profession. 



Nothing very spectacular happened in Scottish anatomy after 

 the passage of Warburton's Anatomy Act. There is evidence that 

 the schools have not always been able to obtain an adequate num- 

 ber of cadavers for dissection purposes. For example, during 1955 

 and 1956, they needed 262 cadavers, but obtained only 190 (For- 

 eign letter, '57). 



