Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Grave robbing for U of M's Medical School

Writing for the Chronicle, Laura Bien has a great article about the lengths the Medical School used to go to to procure cadavers for dissection. From the article:
The university’s ties to grave-robbers were known in the 19th century, and social censure weighed upon those in the anatomy department. In 1880, the “Demonstrator of Anatomy” in charge of procuring bodies was William Herdman. He complained at a June 28, 1880 UM regents meeting. Herdman spoke regarding the “recent and remote instances of grave-robbing which have come to your attention and to the notice of the public … which have justly excited indignation on the part of all law-abiding citizens and have been the cause of great annoyances to all friends of the University and especially to you, [the regents] … ”

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