Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2021
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN

User menu

Search

  • Advanced search
CMAJ
  • CMAJ JOURNALS
    • CMAJ Open
    • CJS
    • JAMC
    • JPN
CMAJ

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Articles & podcasts
    • Blog posts
    • Collection
    • News
  • Content
    • Current issue
    • Past issues
    • Early releases
    • Collections
    • Sections
    • Blog
    • Infographics & illustrations
    • Podcasts
  • Authors
    • Overview for authors
    • Submission guidelines
    • Submit a manuscript
    • Forms
    • Editorial process
    • Editorial policies
    • Peer review process
    • Publication fees
    • Reprint requests
  • CMA Members
    • Overview for members
    • Earn CPD Credits
    • Print copies of CMAJ
    • Career Ad Discount
  • Subscribers
    • General information
    • View prices
  • Alerts
    • Email alerts
    • RSS
  • JAMC
    • À propos
    • Numéro en cours
    • Archives
    • Sections
    • Abonnement
    • Alertes
    • Trousse média 2021
  • Visit CMAJ on Facebook
  • Follow CMAJ on Twitter
  • Follow CMAJ on Pinterest
  • Follow CMAJ on Youtube
  • Follow CMAJ on Instagram
Past progressive

Bodysnatching in Canada

Deepa Francis
CMAJ February 20, 2001 164 (4) 530;
Deepa Francis
Medical student University of Calgary Calgary, Alta.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Metrics
  • Responses
  • PDF
Loading

The nefarious practice of bodysnatching is probably as old as the study of anatomy, but on this continent it was roughly coeval with the founding in 1756 of the first American medical school, in Philadelphia. Canada's first medical school was established in Montreal considerably later, in 1822, but the days of “the resurrection men” were far from over. By 1850 there were 42 medical schools in the United States and Canada, and with them had arisen a need for anatomical specimens. But the lack of legally available cadavers drove professors and students to obtain their raw material by clandestine means.1

The robbers were usually medical students, who stole bodies for their own study or sold them to anatomy instructors. In doing so, they continued a longstanding tradition of their European counterparts; for example, in early 18th-century Edinburgh, students at the Royal College of Surgeons were required to sign an agreement not to engage in grave robbing.1 In Canada, bodysnatching was practised by both English- and French-speaking medical students, although with slightly different motivations. Francophone students tended to be poorer than their anglophone counterparts and needed the money to pay for their education.2,3 By contrast, English-speaking students tended to join bodysnatching expeditions more out of a spirit of daredevilry. They were frequently intoxicated and hence frequently caught.3

To evade detection by the authorities, school staff developed ways to spirit away their corpses at a moment's notice. In some places a pulley was used to hoist the cadaver up the chimney. Alternatively, a block and tackle might be rigged to raise the corpse through a trap door into a domed ceiling: “At the first sign of trouble, up went the corpse … . The students then shut the trapdoor and removed the ladder … a rapid scrub down — and the searchers would find absolutely nothing.”4 To further confuse the authorities and make identification of the corpse difficult, the corpse's head would be skinned and scars excised.

To avert public outrage the robbers were selective. McGill graduate Dr. Griffith Evans reminisced in 1862 that “plenty of negroes were obtained cheap, packed in casks, and passed over the border as provisions, or flour.”4 Robbers would also prowl potter's fields, churchyards, hospitals and poorhouses.4

Although penalties for bodysnatching were increased, such desecrations were rarely prosecuted, for the authorities sympathized with the plight of the medical schools.4 Consequently, the emphasis shifted from punitive legislation to the creation of laws that would make corpses available. An Act to Regulate and Facilitate the Study of Anatomy was passed in the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada in 1843 and later amended in 1883. As a result, the Canadian Medical and Surgical Journal was able to report in 1884 that the robbing of graves in Canada had ceased.2

Figure1

Figure. William Austin, 1721–1820, The Anatomist Overtaken by the Watch ... Carrying off Miss W— in a Hamper. Etching, 27 cm × 40 cm , London (UK), 1773 Photo by: US National Library of Medicine, History of Medicine Department

References

  1. 1.↵
    Walton J, Beeson PB, Scott RB, editors. The Oxford Companion to Medicine, vol. 1. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 1986. p. 61-5, 732.
  2. 2.↵
    Lawrence DG. “Resurrection” and legislation on body-snatching in relation to the Anatomy Act in the province of Quebec. Bull Hist Med 1958;32:419-20.
    OpenUrl
  3. 3.↵
    MacGillivray R. Body-snatching in Ontario. Can Bull Med Hist 1988;5:51-60.
    OpenUrlPubMed
  4. 4.↵
    Drimmer F. Body snatchers, stiffs and other ghoulish delights. NewYork: Fawcett; 1981. p. 95-110.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

CMAJ
Vol. 164, Issue 4
20 Feb 2001
  • Table of Contents
  • Index by author

Article tools

Respond to this article
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
To sign up for email alerts or to access your current email alerts, enter your email address below:
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on CMAJ.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Bodysnatching in Canada
(Your Name) has sent you a message from CMAJ
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the CMAJ web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Bodysnatching in Canada
Deepa Francis
CMAJ Feb 2001, 164 (4) 530;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
‍ Request Permissions
Share
Bodysnatching in Canada
Deepa Francis
CMAJ Feb 2001, 164 (4) 530;
Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • References
  • Responses
  • Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Respect for the dead
  • Corrections
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Past progressive
  • Past progressive
  • James R. Menzies: healing and preaching in early 20th-century China
Show more Past progressive

Similar Articles

Content

  • Current issue
  • Past issues
  • Collections
  • Sections
  • Blog
  • Podcasts
  • Alerts
  • RSS
  • Early releases

Information for

  • Advertisers
  • Authors
  • Reviewers
  • CMA Members
  • Media
  • Reprint requests
  • Subscribers

About

  • General Information
  • Journal staff
  • Editorial Board
  • Governance Council
  • Journal Oversight
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright and Permissions

Copyright 2021, CMA Joule Inc. or its licensors. All rights reserved. ISSN 1488-2329 (e) 0820-3946 (p)

All editorial matter in CMAJ represents the opinions of the authors and not necessarily those of the Canadian Medical Association or its subsidiaries.

To receive any of the resources on this site in an accessible format, please contact us at cmajgroup@cmaj.ca.

Powered by HighWire