CHRONOLOGICAL HIGHLIGHTS ON HUMAN DISSECTION 269 



eighty-one have survived. The peak in the number was reached 

 during the first decade ot the 20th Century. Many were private, 

 fly-by-night establishments and they became successful targets for 

 medical standardizing boards. 



Most of the historical information available on human dis- 

 section revolves around the oldest medical schools in the United 

 States particularly those situated along the Atlantic Coast and in 

 certain parts of the midwest. The initial problems of these in- 

 stitutions were about the same. It is evident that anatomical laws 

 were either lacking or inadequate in the early history of the 

 United States. Those which were enacted permitted dissections 

 to be done on a few bodies of executed criminals, which attached 

 an infamy to the practice. To meet the needs, body snatching 

 f-was established first by gentlemen of the profession: surgeons, 

 teachers and students. These were eventually replaced by com- 

 mercial resurrectionists and their methods, exploits and com- 

 petition matched those who plied their trade in Great Britain. 



It would be difficult to find a community of the past which 

 was lenient and tolerant toward the practice of grave robbing. 

 On the basis of deep-seated convictions, the reactions of the 

 people were defensive toward their buried dead. When thieving 

 was detected, mob response was usually the rule. More rioting 

 has probably occurred in the United States than any other coun- 

 try. Sometimes, it was of violent proportions where bodily harm 

 was inflicted on suspects. The protective measures utilized by 

 the masses against body snatching were the following: filling the 

 graves with bundles of straw, sticks or large stones; placing thick 

 planks across the coffin; building special vaults of heavy stone 

 guarded by iron doors and grave watching. 



As for the resurrectionists, they all followed a standard pro- 

 cedure. A low class of men worked in secrecy in the dead of night 

 during the cold seasons with special types of tools and a horse 

 and cart. They needed to scout funerals, locate the grave, ap- 

 proach the coffin by a certain technique, open it, remove the 

 corpse, leave its clothing and restore the soil as nearly as possible 

 to its former state. Then the body had to be delivered and sold to 

 the anatomist. It was in potter's fields where most such specimens 

 were obtained. 



