Exhuming Corpses

As I was reading the ‘ A Short History of Nearly Everything’ fame Bill Bryson’s latest science work ‘The Body: A Guide for Occupants ’, I came across a paragraph where Bill briefed about the history of dissecting human corpses by medical practitioners. That piqued my interest to look widely upon the topic, and I found more interesting tales behind these incidents. Following is a short compilation of a few facts which amazed me.

A Walk Down the Lane

Although we’re aware of the Egyptians practices of mummifying the dead, a few claim that the Egyptians had the knowledge of cutting open a body. But there is no sufficient evidence to support this claim.

The historical evidences starts in the 3rd century BC in Macedonia, Greece. In an attempt to shine the Alexander’s pet city ‘Alexandria,’ the medical professionals raised their knowledge about human anatomy than anywhere else among their contemporaries. Unfortunately, all of their literature, observations, and findings kept in ‘The Great Library of Alexandria’ were lost when the city itself was arsoned by Julius Caesar’s men during the Great Roman civil war.

The literary evidence begins with the medical scholar Galen, a citizen of Pergamon around 2nd century AD in present-day Turkey. As the Roman laws prohibited human dissection at those times, Galen anatomized apes ( He thought they were close to the human anatomy)and pigs to gain knowledge about the internal structure of sapiens. He wrote books about his discoveries.

Galen’s books were followed all around Europe for the next 1400 years. But dissecting a human was never allowed till then. The Church strongly condemned the dissection. They were announced blasphemous.

By the 11th century, many universities were set up to teach medicine in France and Italy, and the universities started demanding for the human dissection lessons. After a century later, the Church reluctantly accepted dissection classes. But it framed rigorous guidelines to follow.

Dissecting halls were built in the major universities where the human body was cut open before the students. Attendances were made compulsory for these lessons. Once in five years, a dissection class will be held in every university. Those who didn’t attend the class were not allowed to graduate their course.

There were three interesting facts about those classes.

• A lecturer or a general physician doesn’t dissect the human body. Because during those times, it was considered a lesser status to cut open the torso. So the Barber surgeons were used to do that.
• Galen’s books were used as a reference during those lessons. But Galen’s writings were based on apes. Until the 14th century, Universities and the professionals didn’t have any information obtained from a real human body.
• The bodies obtained to perform dissection belong to criminals who were sentenced to Death by hanging.

Disproving Galen

Andreas Vesalius, a Paris university student, is the first in history to begin the practice of ‘ Physicians themself dissecting the human body.’ He believed that’s the way to get more accurate knowledge about the structure and working of our internal organs. In this process, he found out the human body contradicted almost 200 concepts of Galen’s book as it was based on apes.

In the 1500s, when he released a book based on his observations, it was poorly received. Almost every medical scholar objected to Vesalius for contradicting Galen. The Church, too, condemned him. Only after a decade or two, Vesalius’s observations were accepted by the medical community as many other students started dissecting the human body.

As time progressed, the universities kept increasing the frequency of these lessons. The demand for human body increased significantly. Supply couldn’t catch up with it. To ease up the supply issue, the laws were rewritten to increase the number of punishments that were given Death by hanging. Even then, the demand couldn’t be satisfied. More students joined medical classes, and more students outside Italy and France came to learn medicine.

Resurrectionists

This situation led to the rise of ‘ Resurrectionists.’ In common terms, they were called ‘Grave robbers.’ But they called themselves Resurrectionists. They exhumed the buried corpses and sold it to the private houses, which then supplied it to the needy. In the initial days, exhuming corpses happened here and there. But after some time the demand peaked, so as the robbery. Even the half decomposed and skeletons were dugged out and sold.

In a few cases, the dead bodies were snatched from the relatives. To top it off, few started murdering people to supply the bodies. A whole lot of illicit trade branched out to meet the demand. The exhumed bodies were deskinned so that no one could identify who does it belongs to. Even Vesalius himself admits in his books that he exhumed bodies for his studies.

Following these incidents, the Government framed rules to ban these, and if they were violated, the violators themselves would be hanged to death. Their bodies would be given as a donation for dissection. The infamous Irish brothers ‘Burks’ have a process named after them called Burking. They intoxicated human subjects with alcohol and smothered them to Death to sell their bodies. In 1828 the brothers were hanged to death, and the corpses were given to the universities.

European Renaissance

Post the Renaissance, this practice of dissecting humans widely spread to the other European nations. The Government started framing new laws to accommodate the supply and demand. They used dissection to threaten the criminals. This action served two purposes. The crime rate reduced, and the supplies were made available to the universities.

Renaissance artists like Leonarda Da Vinci, Michelangelo tried dissection to know more about the human structure to reflect them in their works.

Universities made a deal with the local gallows for the fresh supplies, and the deceased person’s family were convinced to donate the body for dissection. To persuade them, money was offered to conduct the funeral. In a few cases, post mortem was suggested even in cases where there is no suspicious cause of Death.

The churches in England started accepting these practices only by the 16th century. To avoid dissection, churches preached to avert criminal thoughts. A few physicians even used their own family’s deceased members for dissection lessons.

What am I thinking

I couldn’t help but compare a few of those incidents with today’s world.

· When Vesalius released his observation, the scholar world mocked him for contradicting Galen. They humiliated him wherever he went. He quit the university and joined a King’s entourage as a physician. Even there, he was mocked. He wasn’t taken seriously. Finally, he quit everything and settled in a far off place to practice medicine for the locals.

Sadly even now, this is happening everywhere. Those who contradict people with cult status are criticized and attacked by their followers. We do not keep an open mind about criticisms. Even after all those years, we keep forgetting there is a difference between disrespecting someone and criticizing someone. If someone is contradicting your view, give them an audience.

· Even though it was the churches that prevented the practice of dissection for almost 1500 years, it was the later Popes who encouraged these exercises to gain a solid knowledge about the human internal structure and wisely used it to decrease criminal acts.

Whether we accept it or not, the co-relation between Religion, science, and the day to day activities is undeniable. Instead of objecting theories that don’t sit well with their faiths, religions should trust their population with science for the greater good.

· The people of colour, immigrants, slaves were sold off to the universities in a large number. Mentally ill and homeless people were primarily used in these studies.

The Minority negligence is happening even now.

· Our human body is not as high as Everest nor as deep as Mariana. It is neither expanse as a galaxy nor microscopic as an atom. It’s been almost 500 years since they started practicing dissections on the human body. Even now, the human body holds so many secrets, and the medical community couldn’t crack.

The above is another exciting fact which reminds me to keep an open eye on everything, Never be content with what we know and not to underestimate the mighty Nature. Like the 221B Baker street, Sociopath says, “If you want to know the truth, do not hold any opinions.”

PS: Yes, I am aware of Sushruta Samhita.