I found the chapter Crimes of Anatomy interesting because it is amazing what people, resurrectionists , and anatomy instructors would do just to get cadavers, money, do research, and dissect. I just didn’t understand why the medical schools were not allowed to use cadavers that were not legally available for dissection but they did not get penalized when caught body snatching. But what really crept me out was when Karen Greenlee was caught absconding with a dead young man in 1979. The biology concept that was addressed was dissection; this concept will tie into our course because we will also be learning about how the human and animal organisms and organ systems work. What I think about the chapter is that eventually some things have to come to a change just how new things get old and old things get modified and made better. And that is exactly how human dissections and anatomy changed over time things got discovered and made things easier to understand. Now it’s up to us to make an improvement or come up with an idea, and maybe in this course we can do just that.
I agree with what you wrote but may I add that the reason that Medical Schools were not allowed to use cadavers legally was because back then in the 19 century donating your body to science did not exist. And the reason that the Medical schools would not get in trouble with the law for stealing dead bodies from the graveyards was because this was not seen as a crime.
I very much agree with you on how human dissections and human anatomy have changed over time. I still can't believe that people would go to such great lengths in order to acquire a dead body in order to dissect it. But ever since then, we have become much more advanced when it comes to human dissection that people no longer have to dig up fresh graves for a human body.
It is puzzling that medical schools where not allowed to dissect cadavers and learn more about the human body. Imagine what would have happened if it was still illegal to dissect a human body.Think about all the lives that have been lost if we did not know where the organs were and a surgeon cut in the wrong place and cut a vital organ.
I also was amazed to what people did just to get cadavers and study them, kill people, steal cemeteries, sell dead bodies just horrible and amazing at the same time because of the courage that the thief's had.
I agree 100% with you.I was also very much intrigued that people would do anything to get ahold of a cadaver. They would kill people and rob from cemeteries JUST so they can sell them to receive money, or just to dissect them.
It is fascinating how people's enthusiasm and drive to succeed led them to committing gruesome crimes. Especially how the Father of Anatomy, Herophilus, would dissect criminals while they were still alive, and the unscrupulous killings of ill people by Burke and Hare. Though, despite these events, it is how we know so much about human anatomy today.
This chapter was so interesting to me because its like people would do absolutely anything to get their hands on cadavers to experiment on them and study them. I too found the Karen Greenlee caught absconding with a dead young man in 1979 extremely creepy, but hey people are who they are and like who they like and obviously she likes corpses
This chapter was very interesting. It amazed me that medical schools where not allowed to cut open cadavers to learn more about the human body. But you still have to have respect for other people even if they are dead, so it is understandable that medical schools wouldn't allow the dissection of cadavers.
I agree with you this chapter was very interesting. Many people in the past went so far just to get cadavers to do research experiments.These people were ready to kill form those cadavers. It was quite shocking that the medical school weren't allowed to perform research experiments on cadavers.
Yes i also believe this chapter shows the change of dissection over time, becoming a less scary topic to chat upon. Also the amount of respect they give the bodies now has increased and how you actually have to will your remains to have scientists work on them.
Its fascinating what a anatomist would do just to get bodies for their experiments. I do agree that its creepy when Karen Greenlee was caught absconding with a dead young man. But overall this was a great chapter.
I also did not like how they considered stealing a cadavers belongings or jewelry a crime but stealing their body was not I steal cant get over how they did not think that was not considered a crime maybe they did not feel it was important. But thats life and it can no longer happen today and thats all that matters.
I thought that it was crazy to learn about how people used to steal cadavers and sell them to the high class. I would have thought that the poor would steal the body to get the jewelry and riches, but not to give it to someone to cut open and study.
It's amazing to think about the demand of cadavers in those times! People were so curious to learn more and study the human body that they did crazy things such make a business out of stealing cadavers!
This chapter was the most enlightening to me because I did not know that doctors would go to such lengths to be able to study the human body.I knew about grave robbers who looted graves but i did not know that at a time in history people actually stole the body themselves. This is connected to biology because what the doctors where going to dissect the body to learn more about the human body and in biology we will learn more about the human body.
I completely agree with you, and the part that makes it worse was that stealing the dead bodies wasn't even a crime back then. And as for the doctors and anatomy instructors, you would think that maybe they wouldn't have to resort to such measures that they actually encouraged there students to go and raid the graveyards.
In addition to what you wrote may I add that the medical schools of the 19th century would almost do anything to get a corpse even pay people up to 10,000 dollars just to get a corpse from a grave yard and some schools would even make the students go to a grave yard to get a corpse so that they may use the corpse to study on it.
I was as surprised as you to find out that not just a dead person's possessions were stolen, but their bodies too. And the fact that colleges accepted them as tuition is worse. It must have been hard to teach a student to do surgery however. It would be like teaching someone to fix a computer without showing them how to physically do it.
I agree completely agree with you I believe that what they were doing was completely disrespectful towards the corpse and may I add people were also being murdered so that the killer could get money for selling the corpse to the schools
I agree, the fact that doctors and med students were willing to go such lengths to get cadavers so they can practice surgery. It shows how dedicated they were to their craft.
I'm as shocked as you are. They mustve been very dedicated to be able to steal bodies, JUST to dissect them. Imagine if to this day it was still like that? I may add that they didn't only steal belongings from the grave, but the body as well.
This chapter had me in utter silence. I was really shocked at the extent doctors and students were willing to do just to get a Cadaver. Not onnly does it show how dedicated they were, but it shows their love to learn about the human body.
This chapter interests me but also disgusts me at the same time. I believe everyone was shocked when they read this chapter because no one new about these crimes until they read this book. Thank you Ms./Mrs. Mary Roach. But I still wonder how they didn't get in trouble back then for these murders? Sure I know the scientists (researchers) are willing to do anything for their but I don't think they need to kill someone for work (unless you are an assassin or something).
Diannemay they didn't really kill anyone they were already going to die they just fastened the process which is still crazy and doesn't do any justice to make it right. And they did bring Burke to justice they hanged him but they granted hare immunity. I also said the same thing how could they go so long without doing something about it by law it obliviously wasn't that important.
I agree with you, who knew doctors cared this much about a human body. Although I never really knew about grave robbers but I still thought that its a wrong thing to do.
I agree with you Moises. I found it utterly shocking that doctors would go through so much trouble, and steal a body for there research. They must have a large amount of passion for their job. That is a good thing and a bad thing. I personally felt that it was a wrong deed, I wouldn't mess with someones body who didn't say they wanted to be used as a cadaver in a lab. It's disturbing their peace.
It’s quite extraordinary to see how the doctors went so far when it came to grave robbing. It’s strange that dead bodies became such a treasured possession. I would have never expected that.
Yeah i also knew about grave robbers, but wasn't aware of actual body snatching. I thought dead bodies would be more easily attainable, but apparently scientists have to go great lengths to get them. Even some people resort to killing to get some cadavers.
It's really amazing to see the extents that students and doctors would go through just to get cadavers. This shows a thirst for knowledge and luckily by now, dissections have offered the opportunity for medical advancements, information on anatomy, and better methods of using and getting cadavers. Laws have been put up against grave robbing and people can willingly donate their body when they die for medical research.
This chapter was very interesting for me to read. I was really shocked at how much a cadaver was actually worth to the doctors and anatomy instructors. It was pretty amazing that stealing dead bodies from a grave was not against the law back then. And for a Scottish school in the 1700s to actually accept dead bodies as tuition instead of money is something that I could never imagine happening. This chapter goes to show the amount of effort that was actually put in to human dissection in order to learn more about the inside of a body. It really is amazing though how fast people's opinions can change over time about body donation and human dissection. Thanks to the changing of opinions we now know more about the human body than was ever imaginable way back then.
Likewise, I was shocked to find out that a cadaver was worth so much to doctors. I found it appalling that some colleges considered dead bodies valuable enough to cover tuition. I would have thought they'd have the decency to make sure that the way they got the body was in respect to the person it belonged to. I am also glad that the opinion on body donation has changed over time.
It really was surprising how much a cadaver is worth.The fact that at a time they were stolen so that they could be studied.I wonder what could have happened if people donated there body at that time and how many lives might have been saved.
It was intresting to know how much docters back then really cared about their study in medicine. That they would do anything to go on in the study. They would pay people to dig up people to go further in their study. I wonder what would of happened if i were living in that time era would they dig me up too?
I agree with all of you. I thought people back then didn't really value the study of medicine but money. But I was sadly mistaken. People were still greedy for money but doctors were greedy for knowledge. I am not against that because it helps us today but what if they didn't do such things like, dissection, back then, would there be still many people alive? Would we have been different?
I agree with you. I was very surprised that back then cadavers were worth so much to doctors and anatomy instructors. Also I never knew that it was not illegal to dig out a dead body, even if it wasn't back then I would've thought it to be wrong and disrespectful for his or her family. Although it was wrong for it to be done, if it wasn't for cadavers we wouldn't know much about the human body.
I felt the same way. It was shocking that people could pay for tuition with dead bodies. People went to school literally for free. Things have changed nowadays, and society isn't so flexible. I also was surprised that there wasn't a law implemented back then, if so many doctors were stealing bodies and the problem was apparent they should have done something to prevent it.
I too agree with you, it is very surprising that cadavers were as valuable and maybe even equivalent to a student’s tuition. Many things have changed from those days to now a days. Basically, if you had a cadaver, it would pay your tuition making your education free. This also makes me realize that doctors did do almost anything possible to study medicine.
This chapter really shocked me when I learned that in the 1800's people killed other people just to sell their cadaver and get money out of it. It is surprising that people wanted money so bad that they started to stole cadavers from the cemetery and sell them. But what impressed me was that rich people paid and bought the corpses to study them. According to a British record 312 bodies were stole in only one year. The people at the time that stole the bodies were paid up to 1000 dollars a year(a lot for the time). This relates to biology because it shows that people want to learn about the dead at any cost.
I agree on how human dissections and human anatomy have changed over the years. Its hard to believe that it was illgeal to dissect a dead body in medicial school, how were they able to study the human body and its anatomy. But now, we have become more advanced since we are able to dissect dead bodies in todays society.
This shocked me as well, I had never known that cadavers were in such low supply for medical schools in the 1800's. Also, I have never heard of killing people just to sell their body until I read this book.
The cadavers were also used as a tuition for college. Human dissections have become way more advanced today than it was back then. It is way cleaner, easier, and legal. I am still in shock by the fact that people stole bodies in graves, that is inhumane in my opinion.
Those facts shocked me as well. For me, this raises the question, is it worth killing people and stealing the bodies of loved ones for the sake of research? I think it was because maybe that's where the most advances were made and because of those actions more people survived overall in that time from the new techniques they learned.
Just like most readers, I couldn't believe what I was reading sometimes. Like Boris, I had no clue people would kill others to sell the body to science.
I would say that it was amusing at first, but when you look back at that time, it was desperate times. But unlike now you can basically just go and type in a few words on a search engine and you can find more information on cadavers than you can handle.
Its crazy what people would do for money but it seems to me even crazier what people would do for research. Luckily, now there are laws that forbid these practices that where described in this chapter and people can donate their body for free when they die.
I was intrigued by the chapter “Crimes of Anatomy, because it first showed how cadavers are treated with respect in modern times, but then it explained how in the past, cadavers were disrespected, medical schools had a shortage of cadavers, and just to get cadavers, people looking to make quick money and schools alike were body snatching. You could even get your tuition paid at a medical school/university with cadavers instead of money. I did not understand though, why unclaimed corpse that died in hospitals could not be used for dissection. What shocked me the most though, was that two criminals, Burke and Hare, killed live people in order to sell them to the medical schools for exorbitant amounts of money. This relates to biology because it explained how doctors wanted to learn about the human body, and how it works, and we will be studying about the human body in biology.
I didn't notice that until you said it, and now I'm starting to think Mary wrote the two chapters like that on purpose. Maybe to show the difference between the amount of respect for the dead now and how they were treated in the past.
I partially agree with you but at the same time I have to disagree with you. I don't believe that just because cadavers were taken from their graves was really a sign of disrespect. it may have disrespected a few people but these bodies were really needed at the time because medicine needed to advance. what I do agree with though is that I was shocked as well with Berke and Hare.
I agree with every thing you mentioned. I was surprised to see the difference in how bodies were respected now and back then. I do find everything people did back then in this chapter to be disrespectful. To dig up a body from a grave that was not meant to be experimented on is terrible. the one thing I believe that is not the best idea was, how Burke and Hare went ahead and killed living people just so they can sell it to universities. People did anything possible to gain money
I agree that people now days treat cadavers with respect and dignity and they didn't back in the early 1800s. And the amount people would go to for money was crazy, killing people wow that's pretty wild.
I agree with you. This book gave us some insight on the two sides of "life as a cadaver". Disrespect by stealing dead cadavers out of their own graves, while modern scientist treat cadavers with respect as if they were still living people
I found this chapter about body snatching interesting was because it was funny what they did to the dead. In the 1800’s there were professional body snatchers who dug up bodies for anatomists.
The biology concept mentioned in chapter 2 is dissection. This will relate to our 9th grade biology course because we might be dissecting a frog.
My personal interpretation of the text was that I found it interesting to know what doctors and anatomists did to study medicine. I find it funny because nowadays they don’t do these types of crimes to the dead. I find it shocking because it is wrong what these people did to the dead when they were in their grave.
I disagree, I don't find it funny what they did to the dead. However, I do agree it is interesting to see what med students and doctors were willing to do to get cadaver's.
I also don't think what they to the dead was funny. Everyone should be respected dead or alive. Your answer is a little confusing because first you say its funny, but then you say its wrong. I agree with your personal interpretation of the text. Its amazing what anatomists and some medical schools would do to get cadavers.
The dead is not a funny subject. So i disagree with you. What they did to them was disrespecting. Even though it did grab your attention to see how medical students got cadavers to work on.
I understand where you are coming from because the author made the story humorous to not make it as gory, but cadavers should be treated with respect. I was surprised to find out that they held a memorial service for the unnamed cadavers, it show that now days doctors treat cadavers with dignity.
I agree with Kandis, I think it's inhumane to take someone else's body out of the grave. It disrespects the family and the deceased. The author did in fact try to make it funny, but I don't think it was appropriate to incorporate humor into this subject.
Even with all that was happening back then, you would think that people would be sane and not do this sort of things. But really when it come to science for many people, they would go to the ends of the earth to find the answer.
I believe that the second chapter of "stiff" was mostly about how medical schools have been trying to incorporate into their student a remarkable respect for the dead, due to how in the past the cadavers where treated with little to no respect and how people would do most anything to get more cadavers for study. Also how the lack of respect resulted in students being able to pay their college tuition, and even killing other people to sell their dead bodies to medical schools for large amounts of money. This relates to biology because it showed how doctors were first able to learn about the human body, the functions which we will be studying in class.
That was heartwarming to know about, that they still pay their respect for the dead, even when they are about to perform some sort of surgery on them. I agree that this does, indeed, have to do with biology and the body.
This might sound mean, but I think all of that was necessary. If it weren't for those people, maybe all the medical advances would have never come because cadavers weren't given to scientists until later as an effort to make them stop.
What really caught my attention while reading chapter 2 of "Stiff" was the portion about the "Father of Anatomy", Herophilus. I found it surprising that his interest in what lies beneath human skin twisted him into actually dissecting live people. However, I don't believe ethics were valued much back in the time of the Egyptians, so in a way, it isn't too shocking.
Anatomy concepts covered in this lesson were dissection as well as some history of how the study of the human body commenced. I'm not sure how much the history of anatomy will be covered in this year's Anatomy & Physiology course, but I do know dissection will play a huge role in grasping the material of the overall curriculum.
Chapter 2 covered much of the conception of anatomy, including live dissections of criminals, body snatchers, resurrectionists, and the dark crimes of William Burke and William Hare.
I completely agree, the amount of interest that Herophilus must have had in order for him to actually be driven to the point of dissecting live criminals was extremely strong. Like the book said, "enthusiasm got the better of compassion and common sense".
I agree that Herophilius was definitely sick and twisted; he totally forgot his original purpose in studying the layers beneath the human skin and began corrupt. Dissection has a huge role in this chapter as well, and I agree that all the concepts you listed out were covered in this chapter.
Chapter 2 was actually quite interesting for me. I hadn't realized how much a body was actually worth for doctors and anatomists. I was really intrigued as well as completely shocked that colleges actually accepted cadavers as tuition. It was amazing that in the 1800's people would do the impossible (including murder) just to sell them and earn money. Some people, actually paid just to examine the body. I believe this relates to biology because it mentions dissection, which most likely and hopefully, we will dissect a frog. On the other hand, it explains the history of studying the human body.
I agree with you it was rather shocking to know at a time like that if you wanted to pay for college all you had to do was show up with a dead body. Also this is the history within biology that hardly get to here besides evolution.
The chapter,Crimes of Anatomy of "Stiff" was interesting. In history, many people would go to extreme measures to get cadavers and dissect them, and money. Killing people, body snatching, surprised me that people who did this were not arrested, that this wasn't a crime. The anatomist could have cared less of where and how these people, that donate bodies,get them. Dissection was mostly the biology concept in this chapter since biology is the study of living things. The chapter showed me how the people today quickly accepted body donation and human dissection for wanting to have more knowledge of the human body and to help mankind.
I found this chapter quite interesting because I know that there are people who murder innocent people for money or pleasure. But I did not know researchers (or scientists) would murder an innocent person for money or research. The fact that they do that really disgusts me. The biology concept that was addressed in this chapter was dissection. Dissection will tie in our biology course by studying dissection and doing dissection labs (which I really hope we are doing). My personal interpretation of the text is that how come the scientists did not go to jail for murdering innocent people? How was that even legal back then? Like I said (or typed) earlier this chapter is interesting but scientists murdering innocent people for science or money disgusts me in every single level.
I find this chapter different and interesting because I think it’s absurd and completely out of the ordinary that back in the days people would go to that much of an extreme to find a cadaver that they could dissect to find out information about it. This completely relates to biology because it shows how much people want to find out more about the human body and how it works. I think that since people dug up bodies like that just to be able to open up a human and learn about it led to the evolution of cadavers and the way people can access them which I believe was a big and very important step in science.
I found this chapter interesting and was surprised that people got paid so much for body snatching in the early 1800s. This made me think of Frankenstein so I looked it up and found the book was published in 1818 which ten years later anatomy schools hired full time body snatchers. I wonder if the circumstances of the time period made the author think to write this book. Her writing could have been influenced by rumors of body snatching that were taking place at the time. Now days cadavers are treated with respect and some doctors become very interested in the background stories of their cadavers showing that they truly care about what they are doing and that they give them dignity. This chapter ties into our biology course because we learn about living organisms and learning from the dead helps us know about the living. In the book they practice dissection of cadavers to learn more about the human body. I imagine that we are going to dissect animals and organisms to learn more about them.
It's great that you made the connection with Frankenstein, since it is probable that the author was influenced by such a rapidly growing black market of cadavers. I was also surprised by how much these people actually paid for cadavers that it allowed people to make a living out of being body snatchers.
I found this chapter breath taking on the fact that people were paid for body snatching. I mean not only is it wrong, but how do you have the courage to dig up someones body without a feeling of guilt? I also found interesting but quite disgusted at the same time that people would abscond with the dead. And that they actually made it a law against any intrusion of any part of a person's body. I realized also when comparing the past with today, that back in the days Cadavers had no respect. They were used and discarded. Nowadays we have respect for them, with naming them and conducting ceremonies. It shows nevertheless that somehow the Medical students get attached to their Cadaver throughout the course. I believe that it relates to biology in the matter that it shows how the dead helps us learn for the better of the living. My personal view of the text lead me to question, How could scientist be so non-caring on just snatching bodies, but love to learn about them at the same time?
I share too that disgust because it really was a depraved act and the people who used them treated them with even further disrespect. I'm happy that how nowadays cadavers are treated with the respect they deserve since people have donated their bodies to aid in the learning of others.
I don't think it was that the scientists didn't care for the bodies, more like they were just fascinated on trying to figure out the human anatomy. If it couldn't been done on a living, breathing person, I can see why they found this alternative. Yes, it's gruesome, but life isn't always as pretty as one hopes it to be.
This chapter was very interesting to read. Mary Roach visits an anatomy lab, in which these students had much respect to their cadavers where they would even name. Also, it was interesting that cadavers were worth a lot back then and that it can even pay your own tuition for school. Some biology concepts in this chapter is that it shows how much dissection was important to doctors and even students to a point where they would grow attached to it. My personal interpretation of this chapter is that it mainly dealt with how students and doctors find cadavers very important and special because they helped discover more about the human body. In fact they were so special people even named them.
It's true that the bond the students formed with the cadaver was intriguing but in a good way since it made them respect the cadavers. Also, it was pretty odd how the tuition could be paid off with cadavers, but just showed how desperate they were for cadavers at the time.
I was a bit bothered by the fact that tuition could be paid off with cadavers. It just shows how much they were needed in that time. That still isn't a good enough excuse for doing such a thing, but it's understandable. If one has a thirst for knowledge (the human anatomy in this case), they will strive til get the knowledge they want.
This specific chapter opened my eyes up to an odd form of crime that I barely knew existed. Although I had heard about body snatchers I didn't really understand them until I read this chapter. It was hard for me to understand why bodies were being stolen from graves, such a depraved act, especially because I believed that medical practitioners were too honorable to agree with such a degrading act. However, I disregarded that due to religious reasons people may not want to donate their bodies to science at the time; and when the passion of a medical practitioner or researcher grew to be too great, they would use whatever means they had to obtain bodies to practice on. Although it was a incredibly disrespectful, the cadaver black-market grew incredibly in size during those times. It allowed various medical trainees and practitioners to gain practice and insight when dealing with human organs, blood, and structure. It also allowed for an immense deal of discoveries by researchers desperately wanting to learn more about the human body and its various structure. Even though it was terrible, snatching cadavers or in some cases making cadavers, was essential if doctors of this period wanted to advance their biological knowledge of the human body.
The chapter, Crimes of Anatomy, was very shocking, I thought that cadavers would be easily accessible and available, because many people donate there body's to research. These doctors go through a plethora of ways to obtain cadavers to use for their study. I was also fascinated by the fact that cadavers that are unnamed are given a memorial. Up until this day in my life, I would have never thought that cadavers were treated with so much respect. It was even more shocking when I learned that people stole bodies from graves. These doctors and surgeons had great ambition and passion towards there cadavers and research. So much passion that it causes them to steal others bodies.
Passion indeed. Back then I guess they didn't have a very organized way of having people donate their bodies but thankfully today they have special contracts and methods of getting this done.
Personally, I found this to be the most interesting chapter to me because grave robbing has always been something fascinating to me. How does a person have the ability to just go steal someone’s body? Is there no remorse or guilt felt after doing that? Overall though, the basic biology concepts addressed were along the lines of dissection. This developed a sense of understanding about the human body.
Although I do agree with the correlation you've made between grave robbing and morality, I find it especially comical because Mary Roach had argued that a corpse is no longer possessive of any spirit; it is then a simple carcass of what used to be a complex soul. I don't completely agree with her stance on the subject, but I suppose we'll never really know what happens to our souls until we "drink from the silver cup and ride that highway in the sky!"
Chapter 2, Crimes of Anatomy, was a very interesting and surprising chapter. I was shocked to read some of the details in this chapter. I was very pleased to read about Roach’s visit to anatomy professor, Hugh Patterson’s lab, and to further read about the perfect respect each cadaver received. I also felt the connection that anatomy lab students had towards their cadavers. I did not know they could name the bodies or that they were even allowed. The only thing that I could not understand was that dead bodies were stolen from graves. Although they continually urged to do more research on them, I find it very wrong that this happened. I think that this will tie into our biology class due to the fact that this is history related to the previous scientific actions that were taken and I’m assuming we will be learning more about it in class. Other than that, I was very much impressed by this chapter and enjoyed reading it as well.
I always thought that cadavers would be easily attainable, but i was wrong. Apparently most people back then did not want their bodies worked on, yet scientist hired body snatchers to steal bodies from graves, not for their loot, but for the actual bodies. People like Burke and Hare even resorted to killing people to get some easy money. Cadavers were actually really hard to come by, but were needed for untrained doctors in schools. Also it's somewhat hard to believe they would accept a corpse for intuition. If i were alive back then i would be afraid to be somewhat related to these surgeons, just knowing they might steal my body without my consent. At least i am glad to know that nowadays they actually have you will your remains if you want to and that the bodies are treated with the up most respect as displayed by the students of the University of California.
I agree with how you thought cadavers were easy to get back then, I think it's horrible that people would kill people so that they could sell their bodies.
The chapter Crimes of Anatomy intrigued me very much. I was really surprised at the commitment and dedication of the scientists that stole bodies form graves. This particular one I remember dissected his own father and sister(which are already dead). At this point in the book I was torn into whether thinking this was insanity or pure dedication, as some scientists ordered boxes of dead people to their building all the time. At the same time, it was rather necessary as cadavers were not openly provided to scientists or not enough were being given that it was the only way to learn more about the body even though it was pretty grim.
I agree with you especially the part when you say "this was insanity or pure dedication". I could tell you paid attention while reading, by throwing in the detail about the doctors having bodies sent to them and the man who dissected his sister and father.
I found this chapter interesting because like everyone else I was not aware that cadavers were stolen and sold, I figured that they were donated to researchers, hospitals, medical schools and whoever needed the cadaver for scientific reasons. This chapter relates to our anatomy class because it speaks of how physicians were able to learn about the human body. My personal interpretation of the text was that back then people would go to great lengths to have a cadaver for research.
I did especially enjoy this chapter of the book because I find most crime stories interesting. Now, It was extremely clever to thieve the dead- of course I'm not recommending it, though a corpse cannot call the police for a missing coin pouch. It was all a too perfect plan of course, I believe because of these occurrences that there are Grave guards now in the present. Obviously no one would enjoy walking a graveyard in the night, but it's necessary considering the amount of desperation some thieves have to disrespect the dead. However, before this chapter I had no heard of thieving actual decomposed body parts. The web of scientists involved in this in novel worthy. It's a shame that most people had to fear for their internal organs in the past, I mean how many people have to worry about loosing a kidney today? Sure, if you rent a motel night in an unfriendly neighborhood you could fear the loss of your valuables; But loosing your hands is a very unlikely case and, to me, is the most frightening thing anyone could experience. Though I doubt any corpses dealt with the worrying part, but I definitely would not want any of my parts being stolen. So I assume that some even worried that life would be restless after death. Some life.
This chapter showed me the value of a body even after the heart stops beating. How far people would go to receive money as to killing someone and selling a hollow being as some may call it. The fact that doctors in training needed the bodies desperately was understandable but I feel like there should’ve been a limit.
The biological concept in this is the true need of specimen to learn about anatomy correctly and thoroughly.
This chapter solely focused on the ugly side of studying anatomy, it’s almost taboo how we kill and sacrifice to learn about ourselves more.
There has always been a value to a body even after it is dead. Being buried gives fertilization to soil. I also think there should be a limit as to how many cadavers a student gets.
Yes. This component of the book did shed some light on lifeless bodies.
"... And although I know it's strictly taboo..."
There was a definite need for cadavers at the time, and, had there not been some kind of reward for students giving a body, there wouldn't have been many carcasses to use for the benefit of science.
I was intrigued to read chapter two when I read the title crimes of anatomy.Especially because i was thinks what crimes could there possible be. But in past people robbed graveyards and also even killed for the cadavers.This chapter showed me the value of a human cadaver.
The biological concept in this was to learn about the anatomy but also the dissection that happens the specimen.
The chapter focus on the crimes of anatomy but also on how students and surgeons became attached to the cadavers.
It’s unbelievable what people would do to get what they want. Anatomists would pay a lot of money to obtain corpses. People would make grave digging a job. Others would even murder innocent civilians to give to the scientists for money. Universities would allow students to turn in cadavers instead of paying the full tuition. I am impressed with how much respect the cadavers are given now. Students even named their cadavers and bonded with them in a way.
This chapter was really interesting to read because the length theses people went to get a hold of a human body is a lost of words. Like this dedication of furthering their education about the human body is pure biology it self and I found the process to do so is pretty clever.This chapter relates to biology because it shows how much people wanted to find out more about the human body and how it works. So i guess you could say people back than were more hungry to find out about the human body. As degrading as some content were in this chapter as for grave robing and killing people I guess it was okay for better of education in my opinion.
Crimes of anatomy had many different examples of what people would do for money. Many people would go through extreme conditions to get hold of and deliver the body, and even though you would get a good lump sum for your job, there is no way that I would ever want to do that, in a past, present, or future life. I also noticed that in the lab, most anatomy students would grow attached to their cadaver and even name them. It would be a bit weird to grow attached to a dead body but its hard to look at a person as anything other than a person.
What surprised me about this chapter was what people, mainly professors, would do in order to get a cadaver to study. While I was aware that grave robbing was something that tended to happen in the past I was not aware that it was committed by professors in order to teach a class anatomy. What surprised me the most was how desperate some universities were by allowing students to pay tuition fees with a cadaver. This chapter ties in with biology because one of the focuses of this chapter is studying human anatomy. The focus of this chapter was the crimes that were committed in order to further science and medicine.
I was also shocked as you are to know that the professors would rob a corpse or even pay a person to do that. It's unbelievable to hear what people did for money.
Chapter two can be described of how cadaver testing how reckless it was being done in the past. Also the certain risk doctors were going through. In order to actually, to do cadaver testing and experimenting on them. Also, how colleges were getting involved in the mischief of grave robbing and how they actually were giving out scholarships to students who were willing to steal bodies. I found all this information to be very astonishing and interesting.
This chapter really shows the passion that researchers had and the big extents that they would go to just to get cadavers. With laws this mischief has been banned and now their are organized ways of getting people to donate their bodies when they die.
This chapter touched upon the drastic measures in history that researchers and doctors would go to in order to get cadavers. This includes digging up graves dissecting live criminals in ancient Egypt. Laws at the time permitted this and some universities would give tuition if students would bring back a certain number of bodies from the graves. This all had a lot of shock value and it showed the struggles and passion of anatomy regardless of how "wrong" it seemed, and I can admire that. I liked that this chapter was not sugarcoated and it gave some interesting historical accounts that showed the endurance of researchers and discoveries of anatomy.
“Crimes of Anatomy” had my attention at the turn of page (as in before I had even acknowledged the words on it). Had I not been well informed of corpse theft before reading this chapter, I would have probably had one more chill run up my spine, joining the other, say, twenty. This fragment of the book definitely aroused my questioning of whether dissecting loved ones was one step too far in the advancement of anatomy and physiology, although it did “raise awareness of the need for organs for transplantation” (Roach 56). Albeit, I believe it was a great investment... Heck, maybe I’ll dissect my own father and sister after they’ve passed on.
I was kind of shocked while reading this chapter especially when I read that in the nineteenth century people killed each other to sell their cadavers. It was shocking to read, but also fascinating to hear about this field of science. At one point, people would steal recently buried cadavers from the cemetery and sell those. It was impressive to hear that the high class wanted to buy these cadavers to study them. According to the novel and a British record, about 312 bodies were taken in one year. This relates to biology in many ways. In example, people were willing to pay whatever they could to learn more about life and our bodies.
It was crazy for me to read about the supply and crazy demand of cadavers in the nineteenth century. I never imagined such a thing, to be honest! I couldn't believe that people were actually paid to commit crimes and dig out buried cadavers. Reading "Body snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection" did even seem real. I reread it because it just seemed that crazy. I was absolutely astonished! That was such a hunger to find out more about humans and their components and that's what mainly lead to these crazy "Crimes of Anatomy".
I found the chapter Crimes of Anatomy interesting because it is amazing what people, resurrectionists , and anatomy instructors would do just to get cadavers, money, do research, and dissect. I just didn’t understand why the medical schools were not allowed to use cadavers that were not legally available for dissection but they did not get penalized when caught body snatching. But what really crept me out was when Karen Greenlee was caught absconding with a dead young man in 1979. The biology concept that was addressed was dissection; this concept will tie into our course because we will also be learning about how the human and animal organisms and organ systems work. What I think about the chapter is that eventually some things have to come to a change just how new things get old and old things get modified and made better. And that is exactly how human dissections and anatomy changed over time things got discovered and made things easier to understand. Now it’s up to us to make an improvement or come up with an idea, and maybe in this course we can do just that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you wrote but may I add that the reason that Medical Schools were not allowed to use cadavers legally was because back then in the 19 century donating your body to science did not exist. And the reason that the Medical schools would not get in trouble with the law for stealing dead bodies from the graveyards was because this was not seen as a crime.
DeleteI very much agree with you on how human dissections and human anatomy have changed over time. I still can't believe that people would go to such great lengths in order to acquire a dead body in order to dissect it. But ever since then, we have become much more advanced when it comes to human dissection that people no longer have to dig up fresh graves for a human body.
DeleteIt is puzzling that medical schools where not allowed to dissect cadavers and learn more about the human body. Imagine what would have happened if it was still illegal to dissect a human body.Think about all the lives that have been lost if we did not know where the organs were and a surgeon cut in the wrong place and cut a vital organ.
DeleteI also was amazed to what people did just to get cadavers and study them, kill people, steal cemeteries, sell dead bodies just horrible and amazing at the same time because of the courage that the thief's had.
DeleteI agree 100% with you.I was also very much intrigued that people would do anything to get ahold of a cadaver. They would kill people and rob from cemeteries JUST so they can sell them to receive money, or just to dissect them.
DeleteIt is fascinating how people's enthusiasm and drive to succeed led them to committing gruesome crimes. Especially how the Father of Anatomy, Herophilus, would dissect criminals while they were still alive, and the unscrupulous killings of ill people by Burke and Hare. Though, despite these events, it is how we know so much about human anatomy today.
DeleteThis chapter was so interesting to me because its like people would do absolutely anything to get their hands on cadavers to experiment on them and study them. I too found the Karen Greenlee caught absconding with a dead young man in 1979 extremely creepy, but hey people are who they are and like who they like and obviously she likes corpses
DeleteThis chapter was very interesting. It amazed me that medical schools where not allowed to cut open cadavers to learn more about the human body. But you still have to have respect for other people even if they are dead, so it is understandable that medical schools wouldn't allow the dissection of cadavers.
DeleteI agree with you this chapter was very interesting. Many people in the past went so far just to get cadavers to do research experiments.These people were ready to kill form those cadavers. It was quite shocking that the medical school weren't allowed to perform research experiments on cadavers.
DeleteYes i also believe this chapter shows the change of dissection over time, becoming a less scary topic to chat upon. Also the amount of respect they give the bodies now has increased and how you actually have to will your remains to have scientists work on them.
DeleteIts fascinating what a anatomist would do just to get bodies for their experiments. I do agree that its creepy when Karen Greenlee was caught absconding with a dead young man. But overall this was a great chapter.
DeleteI also did not like how they considered stealing a cadavers belongings or jewelry a crime but stealing their body was not I steal cant get over how they did not think that was not considered a crime maybe they did not feel it was important. But thats life and it can no longer happen today and thats all that matters.
DeleteI thought that it was crazy to learn about how people used to steal cadavers and sell them to the high class. I would have thought that the poor would steal the body to get the jewelry and riches, but not to give it to someone to cut open and study.
DeleteIt's amazing to think about the demand of cadavers in those times! People were so curious to learn more and study the human body that they did crazy things such make a business out of stealing cadavers!
DeleteThis chapter was the most enlightening to me because I did not know that doctors would go to such lengths to be able to study the human body.I knew about grave robbers who looted graves but i did not know that at a time in history people actually stole the body themselves. This is connected to biology because what the doctors where going to dissect the body to learn more about the human body and in biology we will learn more about the human body.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, and the part that makes it worse was that stealing the dead bodies wasn't even a crime back then. And as for the doctors and anatomy instructors, you would think that maybe they wouldn't have to resort to such measures that they actually encouraged there students to go and raid the graveyards.
DeleteIn addition to what you wrote may I add that the medical schools of the 19th century would almost do anything to get a corpse even pay people up to 10,000 dollars just to get a corpse from a grave yard and some schools would even make the students go to a grave yard to get a corpse so that they may use the corpse to study on it.
DeleteI was as surprised as you to find out that not just a dead person's possessions were stolen, but their bodies too. And the fact that colleges accepted them as tuition is worse. It must have been hard to teach a student to do surgery however. It would be like teaching someone to fix a computer without showing them how to physically do it.
DeleteI agree completely agree with you I believe that what they were doing was completely disrespectful towards the corpse and may I add people were also being murdered so that the killer could get money for selling the corpse to the schools
DeleteI agree, the fact that doctors and med students were willing to go such lengths to get cadavers so they can practice surgery. It shows how dedicated they were to their craft.
DeleteI'm as shocked as you are. They mustve been very dedicated to be able to steal bodies, JUST to dissect them. Imagine if to this day it was still like that? I may add that they didn't only steal belongings from the grave, but the body as well.
DeleteThis chapter had me in utter silence. I was really shocked at the extent doctors and students were willing to do just to get a Cadaver. Not onnly does it show how dedicated they were, but it shows their love to learn about the human body.
DeleteThis chapter interests me but also disgusts me at the same time. I believe everyone was shocked when they read this chapter because no one new about these crimes until they read this book. Thank you Ms./Mrs. Mary Roach. But I still wonder how they didn't get in trouble back then for these murders? Sure I know the scientists (researchers) are willing to do anything for their but I don't think they need to kill someone for work (unless you are an assassin or something).
DeleteDiannemay they didn't really kill anyone they were already going to die they just fastened the process which is still crazy and doesn't do any justice to make it right. And they did bring Burke to justice they hanged him but they granted hare immunity. I also said the same thing how could they go so long without doing something about it by law it obliviously wasn't that important.
DeleteI agree with you, who knew doctors cared this much about a human body. Although I never really knew about grave robbers but I still thought that its a wrong thing to do.
DeleteI agree with you Moises. I found it utterly shocking that doctors would go through so much trouble, and steal a body for there research. They must have a large amount of passion for their job. That is a good thing and a bad thing. I personally felt that it was a wrong deed, I wouldn't mess with someones body who didn't say they wanted to be used as a cadaver in a lab. It's disturbing their peace.
DeleteIt’s quite extraordinary to see how the doctors went so far when it came to grave robbing. It’s strange that dead bodies became such a treasured possession. I would have never expected that.
DeleteYeah i also knew about grave robbers, but wasn't aware of actual body snatching. I thought dead bodies would be more easily attainable, but apparently scientists have to go great lengths to get them. Even some people resort to killing to get some cadavers.
DeleteIt's really amazing to see the extents that students and doctors would go through just to get cadavers. This shows a thirst for knowledge and luckily by now, dissections have offered the opportunity for medical advancements, information on anatomy, and better methods of using and getting cadavers. Laws have been put up against grave robbing and people can willingly donate their body when they die for medical research.
DeleteI agree with you! Before reading this book, I never in my life would've thought people would steal cadavers for scientific purposes
DeleteThis chapter was very interesting for me to read. I was really shocked at how much a cadaver was actually worth to the doctors and anatomy instructors. It was pretty amazing that stealing dead bodies from a grave was not against the law back then. And for a Scottish school in the 1700s to actually accept dead bodies as tuition instead of money is something that I could never imagine happening. This chapter goes to show the amount of effort that was actually put in to human dissection in order to learn more about the inside of a body. It really is amazing though how fast people's opinions can change over time about body donation and human dissection. Thanks to the changing of opinions we now know more about the human body than was ever imaginable way back then.
ReplyDeleteLikewise, I was shocked to find out that a cadaver was worth so much to doctors. I found it appalling that some colleges considered dead bodies valuable enough to cover tuition. I would have thought they'd have the decency to make sure that the way they got the body was in respect to the person it belonged to. I am also glad that the opinion on body donation has changed over time.
DeleteIt really was surprising how much a cadaver is worth.The fact that at a time they were stolen so that they could be studied.I wonder what could have happened if people donated there body at that time and how many lives might have been saved.
DeleteIt was intresting to know how much docters back then really cared about their study in medicine. That they would do anything to go on in the study. They would pay people to dig up people to go further in their study. I wonder what would of happened if i were living in that time era would they dig me up too?
DeleteI agree with all of you. I thought people back then didn't really value the study of medicine but money. But I was sadly mistaken. People were still greedy for money but doctors were greedy for knowledge. I am not against that because it helps us today but what if they didn't do such things like, dissection, back then, would there be still many people alive? Would we have been different?
DeleteI agree with you. I was very surprised that back then cadavers were worth so much to doctors and anatomy instructors. Also I never knew that it was not illegal to dig out a dead body, even if it wasn't back then I would've thought it to be wrong and disrespectful for his or her family. Although it was wrong for it to be done, if it wasn't for cadavers we wouldn't know much about the human body.
DeleteI felt the same way. It was shocking that people could pay for tuition with dead bodies. People went to school literally for free. Things have changed nowadays, and society isn't so flexible. I also was surprised that there wasn't a law implemented back then, if so many doctors were stealing bodies and the problem was apparent they should have done something to prevent it.
DeleteI too agree with you, it is very surprising that cadavers were as valuable and maybe even equivalent to a student’s tuition. Many things have changed from those days to now a days. Basically, if you had a cadaver, it would pay your tuition making your education free. This also makes me realize that doctors did do almost anything possible to study medicine.
DeleteThis chapter really shocked me when I learned that in the 1800's people killed other people just to sell their cadaver and get money out of it. It is surprising that people wanted money so bad that they started to stole cadavers from the cemetery and sell them. But what impressed me was that rich people paid and bought the corpses to study them. According to a British record 312 bodies were stole in only one year. The people at the time that stole the bodies were paid up to 1000 dollars a year(a lot for the time). This relates to biology because it shows that people want to learn about the dead at any cost.
ReplyDeleteI agree on how human dissections and human anatomy have changed over the years. Its hard to believe that it was illgeal to dissect a dead body in medicial school, how were they able to study the human body and its anatomy. But now, we have become more advanced since we are able to dissect dead bodies in todays society.
DeleteThis shocked me as well, I had never known that cadavers were in such low supply for medical schools in the 1800's. Also, I have never heard of killing people just to sell their body until I read this book.
DeleteThe cadavers were also used as a tuition for college. Human dissections have become way more advanced today than it was back then. It is way cleaner, easier, and legal. I am still in shock by the fact that people stole bodies in graves, that is inhumane in my opinion.
DeleteThose facts shocked me as well. For me, this raises the question, is it worth killing people and stealing the bodies of loved ones for the sake of research? I think it was because maybe that's where the most advances were made and because of those actions more people survived overall in that time from the new techniques they learned.
DeleteJust like most readers, I couldn't believe what I was reading sometimes. Like Boris, I had no clue people would kill others to sell the body to science.
DeleteI would say that it was amusing at first, but when you look back at that time, it was desperate times. But unlike now you can basically just go and type in a few words on a search engine and you can find more information on cadavers than you can handle.
DeleteIts crazy what people would do for money but it seems to me even crazier what people would do for research. Luckily, now there are laws that forbid these practices that where described in this chapter and people can donate their body for free when they die.
DeleteI was intrigued by the chapter “Crimes of Anatomy, because it first showed how cadavers are treated with respect in modern times, but then it explained how in the past, cadavers were disrespected, medical schools had a shortage of cadavers, and just to get cadavers, people looking to make quick money and schools alike were body snatching. You could even get your tuition paid at a medical school/university with cadavers instead of money. I did not understand though, why unclaimed corpse that died in hospitals could not be used for dissection. What shocked me the most though, was that two criminals, Burke and Hare, killed live people in order to sell them to the medical schools for exorbitant amounts of money. This relates to biology because it explained how doctors wanted to learn about the human body, and how it works, and we will be studying about the human body in biology.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice that until you said it, and now I'm starting to think Mary wrote the two chapters like that on purpose. Maybe to show the difference between the amount of respect for the dead now and how they were treated in the past.
DeleteI partially agree with you but at the same time I have to disagree with you. I don't believe that just because cadavers were taken from their graves was really a sign of disrespect. it may have disrespected a few people but these bodies were really needed at the time because medicine needed to advance. what I do agree with though is that I was shocked as well with Berke and Hare.
DeleteI agree with every thing you mentioned. I was surprised to see the difference in how bodies were respected now and back then. I do find everything people did back then in this chapter to be disrespectful. To dig up a body from a grave that was not meant to be experimented on is terrible. the one thing I believe that is not the best idea was, how Burke and Hare went ahead and killed living people just so they can sell it to universities. People did anything possible to gain money
DeleteI agree that people now days treat cadavers with respect and dignity and they didn't back in the early 1800s. And the amount people would go to for money was crazy, killing people wow that's pretty wild.
DeleteI agree with you. This book gave us some insight on the two sides of "life as a cadaver". Disrespect by stealing dead cadavers out of their own graves, while modern scientist treat cadavers with respect as if they were still living people
DeleteI found this chapter about body snatching interesting was because it was funny what they did to the dead. In the 1800’s there were professional body snatchers who dug up bodies for anatomists.
ReplyDeleteThe biology concept mentioned in chapter 2 is dissection. This will relate to our 9th grade biology course because we might be dissecting a frog.
My personal interpretation of the text was that I found it interesting to know what doctors and anatomists did to study medicine. I find it funny because nowadays they don’t do these types of crimes to the dead. I find it shocking because it is wrong what these people did to the dead when they were in their grave.
I disagree, I don't find it funny what they did to the dead. However, I do agree it is interesting to see what med students and doctors were willing to do to get cadaver's.
DeleteI also don't think what they to the dead was funny. Everyone should be respected dead or alive. Your answer is a little confusing because first you say its funny, but then you say its wrong. I agree with your personal interpretation of the text. Its amazing what anatomists and some medical schools would do to get cadavers.
DeleteThe dead is not a funny subject. So i disagree with you. What they did to them was disrespecting. Even though it did grab your attention to see how medical students got cadavers to work on.
DeleteI understand where you are coming from because the author made the story humorous to not make it as gory, but cadavers should be treated with respect. I was surprised to find out that they held a memorial service for the unnamed cadavers, it show that now days doctors treat cadavers with dignity.
DeleteI agree with Kandis, I think it's inhumane to take someone else's body out of the grave. It disrespects the family and the deceased. The author did in fact try to make it funny, but I don't think it was appropriate to incorporate humor into this subject.
DeleteEven with all that was happening back then, you would think that people would be sane and not do this sort of things. But really when it come to science for many people, they would go to the ends of the earth to find the answer.
DeleteI believe that the second chapter of "stiff" was mostly about how medical schools have been trying to incorporate into their student a remarkable respect for the dead, due to how in the past the cadavers where treated with little to no respect and how people would do most anything to get more cadavers for study. Also how the lack of respect resulted in students being able to pay their college tuition, and even killing other people to sell their dead bodies to medical schools for large amounts of money. This relates to biology because it showed how doctors were first able to learn about the human body, the functions which we will be studying in class.
ReplyDeleteThat was heartwarming to know about, that they still pay their respect for the dead, even when they are about to perform some sort of surgery on them. I agree that this does, indeed, have to do with biology and the body.
DeleteThis might sound mean, but I think all of that was necessary. If it weren't for those people, maybe all the medical advances would have never come because cadavers weren't given to scientists until later as an effort to make them stop.
DeleteWhat really caught my attention while reading chapter 2 of "Stiff" was the portion about the "Father of Anatomy", Herophilus. I found it surprising that his interest in what lies beneath human skin twisted him into actually dissecting live people. However, I don't believe ethics were valued much back in the time of the Egyptians, so in a way, it isn't too shocking.
ReplyDeleteAnatomy concepts covered in this lesson were dissection as well as some history of how the study of the human body commenced. I'm not sure how much the history of anatomy will be covered in this year's Anatomy & Physiology course, but I do know dissection will play a huge role in grasping the material of the overall curriculum.
Chapter 2 covered much of the conception of anatomy, including live dissections of criminals, body snatchers, resurrectionists, and the dark crimes of William Burke and William Hare.
I completely agree, the amount of interest that Herophilus must have had in order for him to actually be driven to the point of dissecting live criminals was extremely strong. Like the book said, "enthusiasm got the better of compassion and common sense".
DeleteI agree that Herophilius was definitely sick and twisted; he totally forgot his original purpose in studying the layers beneath the human skin and began corrupt. Dissection has a huge role in this chapter as well, and I agree that all the concepts you listed out were covered in this chapter.
DeleteChapter 2 was actually quite interesting for me. I hadn't realized how much a body was actually worth for doctors and anatomists. I was really intrigued as well as completely shocked that colleges actually accepted cadavers as tuition. It was amazing that in the 1800's people would do the impossible (including murder) just to sell them and earn money. Some people, actually paid just to examine the body. I believe this relates to biology because it mentions dissection, which most likely and hopefully, we will dissect a frog. On the other hand, it explains the history of studying the human body.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you it was rather shocking to know at a time like that if you wanted to pay for college all you had to do was show up with a dead body. Also this is the history within biology that hardly get to here besides evolution.
DeleteThe chapter,Crimes of Anatomy of "Stiff" was interesting. In history, many people would go to extreme measures to get cadavers and dissect them, and money. Killing people, body snatching, surprised me that people who did this were not arrested, that this wasn't a crime. The anatomist could have cared less of where and how these people, that donate bodies,get them. Dissection was mostly the biology concept in this chapter since biology is the study of living things. The chapter showed me how the people today quickly accepted body donation and human dissection for wanting to have more knowledge of the human body and to help mankind.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the author that it was intresting. That the writer of this post did a good job.
DeleteI found this chapter quite interesting because I know that there are people who murder innocent people for money or pleasure. But I did not know researchers (or scientists) would murder an innocent person for money or research. The fact that they do that really disgusts me. The biology concept that was addressed in this chapter was dissection. Dissection will tie in our biology course by studying dissection and doing dissection labs (which I really hope we are doing). My personal interpretation of the text is that how come the scientists did not go to jail for murdering innocent people? How was that even legal back then? Like I said (or typed) earlier this chapter is interesting but scientists murdering innocent people for science or money disgusts me in every single level.
ReplyDeleteI find this chapter different and interesting because I think it’s absurd and completely out of the ordinary that back in the days people would go to that much of an extreme to find a cadaver that they could dissect to find out information about it. This completely relates to biology because it shows how much people want to find out more about the human body and how it works. I think that since people dug up bodies like that just to be able to open up a human and learn about it led to the evolution of cadavers and the way people can access them which I believe was a big and very important step in science.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you think this chapter is absurd and out of the ordinary, I was very surprised to read about how far people would go for cadavers.
DeleteI found this chapter interesting and was surprised that people got paid so much for body snatching in the early 1800s. This made me think of Frankenstein so I looked it up and found the book was published in 1818 which ten years later anatomy schools hired full time body snatchers. I wonder if the circumstances of the time period made the author think to write this book. Her writing could have been influenced by rumors of body snatching that were taking place at the time. Now days cadavers are treated with respect and some doctors become very interested in the background stories of their cadavers showing that they truly care about what they are doing and that they give them dignity. This chapter ties into our biology course because we learn about living organisms and learning from the dead helps us know about the living. In the book they practice dissection of cadavers to learn more about the human body. I imagine that we are going to dissect animals and organisms to learn more about them.
ReplyDeleteIt's great that you made the connection with Frankenstein, since it is probable that the author was influenced by such a rapidly growing black market of cadavers. I was also surprised by how much these people actually paid for cadavers that it allowed people to make a living out of being body snatchers.
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ReplyDeleteI found this chapter breath taking on the fact that people were paid for body snatching. I mean not only is it wrong, but how do you have the courage to dig up someones body without a feeling of guilt? I also found interesting but quite disgusted at the same time that people would abscond with the dead. And that they actually made it a law against any intrusion of any part of a person's body. I realized also when comparing the past with today, that back in the days Cadavers had no respect. They were used and discarded. Nowadays we have respect for them, with naming them and conducting ceremonies. It shows nevertheless that somehow the Medical students get attached to their Cadaver throughout the course. I believe that it relates to biology in the matter that it shows how the dead helps us learn for the better of the living. My personal view of the text lead me to question, How could scientist be so non-caring on just snatching bodies, but love to learn about them at the same time?
ReplyDeleteI share too that disgust because it really was a depraved act and the people who used them treated them with even further disrespect. I'm happy that how nowadays cadavers are treated with the respect they deserve since people have donated their bodies to aid in the learning of others.
DeleteI don't think it was that the scientists didn't care for the bodies, more like they were just fascinated on trying to figure out the human anatomy. If it couldn't been done on a living, breathing person, I can see why they found this alternative. Yes, it's gruesome, but life isn't always as pretty as one hopes it to be.
DeleteThis chapter was very interesting to read. Mary Roach visits an anatomy lab, in which these students had much respect to their cadavers where they would even name. Also, it was interesting that cadavers were worth a lot back then and that it can even pay your own tuition for school.
ReplyDeleteSome biology concepts in this chapter is that it shows how much dissection was important to doctors and even students to a point where they would grow attached to it.
My personal interpretation of this chapter is that it mainly dealt with how students and doctors find cadavers very important and special because they helped discover more about the human body. In fact they were so special people even named them.
It's true that the bond the students formed with the cadaver was intriguing but in a good way since it made them respect the cadavers. Also, it was pretty odd how the tuition could be paid off with cadavers, but just showed how desperate they were for cadavers at the time.
DeleteI was a bit bothered by the fact that tuition could be paid off with cadavers. It just shows how much they were needed in that time. That still isn't a good enough excuse for doing such a thing, but it's understandable. If one has a thirst for knowledge (the human anatomy in this case), they will strive til get the knowledge they want.
DeleteThis specific chapter opened my eyes up to an odd form of crime that I barely knew existed. Although I had heard about body snatchers I didn't really understand them until I read this chapter. It was hard for me to understand why bodies were being stolen from graves, such a depraved act, especially because I believed that medical practitioners were too honorable to agree with such a degrading act. However, I disregarded that due to religious reasons people may not want to donate their bodies to science at the time; and when the passion of a medical practitioner or researcher grew to be too great, they would use whatever means they had to obtain bodies to practice on. Although it was a incredibly disrespectful, the cadaver black-market grew incredibly in size during those times. It allowed various medical trainees and practitioners to gain practice and insight when dealing with human organs, blood, and structure. It also allowed for an immense deal of discoveries by researchers desperately wanting to learn more about the human body and its various structure. Even though it was terrible, snatching cadavers or in some cases making cadavers, was essential if doctors of this period wanted to advance their biological knowledge of the human body.
ReplyDeleteThe chapter, Crimes of Anatomy, was very shocking, I thought that cadavers would be easily accessible and available, because many people donate there body's to research. These doctors go through a plethora of ways to obtain cadavers to use for their study. I was also fascinated by the fact that cadavers that are unnamed are given a memorial. Up until this day in my life, I would have never thought that cadavers were treated with so much respect. It was even more shocking when I learned that people stole bodies from graves. These doctors and surgeons had great ambition and passion towards there cadavers and research. So much passion that it causes them to steal others bodies.
ReplyDeletePassion indeed. Back then I guess they didn't have a very organized way of having people donate their bodies but thankfully today they have special contracts and methods of getting this done.
DeletePersonally, I found this to be the most interesting chapter to me because grave robbing has always been something fascinating to me. How does a person have the ability to just go steal someone’s body? Is there no remorse or guilt felt after doing that? Overall though, the basic biology concepts addressed were along the lines of dissection. This developed a sense of understanding about the human body.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I do agree with the correlation you've made between grave robbing and morality, I find it especially comical because Mary Roach had argued that a corpse is no longer possessive of any spirit; it is then a simple carcass of what used to be a complex soul. I don't completely agree with her stance on the subject, but I suppose we'll never really know what happens to our souls until we "drink from the silver cup and ride that highway in the sky!"
DeleteChapter 2, Crimes of Anatomy, was a very interesting and surprising chapter. I was shocked to read some of the details in this chapter. I was very pleased to read about Roach’s visit to anatomy professor, Hugh Patterson’s lab, and to further read about the perfect respect each cadaver received. I also felt the connection that anatomy lab students had towards their cadavers. I did not know they could name the bodies or that they were even allowed. The only thing that I could not understand was that dead bodies were stolen from graves. Although they continually urged to do more research on them, I find it very wrong that this happened. I think that this will tie into our biology class due to the fact that this is history related to the previous scientific actions that were taken and I’m assuming we will be learning more about it in class. Other than that, I was very much impressed by this chapter and enjoyed reading it as well.
ReplyDeleteI always thought that cadavers would be easily attainable, but i was wrong. Apparently most people back then did not want their bodies worked on, yet scientist hired body snatchers to steal bodies from graves, not for their loot, but for the actual bodies. People like Burke and Hare even resorted to killing people to get some easy money. Cadavers were actually really hard to come by, but were needed for untrained doctors in schools. Also it's somewhat hard to believe they would accept a corpse for intuition. If i were alive back then i would be afraid to be somewhat related to these surgeons, just knowing they might steal my body without my consent. At least i am glad to know that nowadays they actually have you will your remains if you want to and that the bodies are treated with the up most respect as displayed by the students of the University of California.
ReplyDeleteI agree with how you thought cadavers were easy to get back then, I think it's horrible that people would kill people so that they could sell their bodies.
DeleteThe chapter Crimes of Anatomy intrigued me very much. I was really surprised at the commitment and dedication of the scientists that stole bodies form graves. This particular one I remember dissected his own father and sister(which are already dead). At this point in the book I was torn into whether thinking this was insanity or pure dedication, as some scientists ordered boxes of dead people to their building all the time. At the same time, it was rather necessary as cadavers were not openly provided to scientists or not enough were being given that it was the only way to learn more about the body even though it was pretty grim.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you especially the part when you say "this was insanity or pure dedication". I could tell you paid attention while reading, by throwing in the detail about the doctors having bodies sent to them and the man who dissected his sister and father.
DeleteI found this chapter interesting because like everyone else I was not aware that cadavers were stolen and sold, I figured that they were donated to researchers, hospitals, medical schools and whoever needed the cadaver for scientific reasons. This chapter relates to our anatomy class because it speaks of how physicians were able to learn about the human body. My personal interpretation of the text was that back then people would go to great lengths to have a cadaver for research.
ReplyDeleteI did especially enjoy this chapter of the book because I find most crime stories interesting. Now, It was extremely clever to thieve the dead- of course I'm not recommending it, though a corpse cannot call the police for a missing coin pouch. It was all a too perfect plan of course, I believe because of these occurrences that there are Grave guards now in the present. Obviously no one would enjoy walking a graveyard in the night, but it's necessary considering the amount of desperation some thieves have to disrespect the dead. However, before this chapter I had no heard of thieving actual decomposed body parts. The web of scientists involved in this in novel worthy.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame that most people had to fear for their internal organs in the past, I mean how many people have to worry about loosing a kidney today? Sure, if you rent a motel night in an unfriendly neighborhood you could fear the loss of your valuables; But loosing your hands is a very unlikely case and, to me, is the most frightening thing anyone could experience. Though I doubt any corpses dealt with the worrying part, but I definitely would not want any of my parts being stolen. So I assume that some even worried that life would be restless after death. Some life.
This chapter showed me the value of a body even after the heart stops beating. How far people would go to receive money as to killing someone and selling a hollow being as some may call it. The fact that doctors in training needed the bodies desperately was understandable but I feel like there should’ve been a limit.
ReplyDeleteThe biological concept in this is the true need of specimen to learn about anatomy correctly and thoroughly.
This chapter solely focused on the ugly side of studying anatomy, it’s almost taboo how we kill and sacrifice to learn about ourselves more.
There has always been a value to a body even after it is dead. Being buried gives fertilization to soil. I also think there should be a limit as to how many cadavers a student gets.
DeleteYes. This component of the book did shed some light on lifeless bodies.
Delete"... And although I know it's strictly taboo..."
There was a definite need for cadavers at the time, and, had there not been some kind of reward for students giving a body, there wouldn't have been many carcasses to use for the benefit of science.
I was intrigued to read chapter two when I read the title crimes of anatomy.Especially because i was thinks what crimes could there possible be. But in past people robbed graveyards and also even killed for the cadavers.This chapter showed me the value of a human cadaver.
ReplyDeleteThe biological concept in this was to learn about the anatomy but also the dissection that happens the specimen.
The chapter focus on the crimes of anatomy but also on how students and surgeons became attached to the cadavers.
It’s unbelievable what people would do to get what they want. Anatomists would pay a lot of money to obtain corpses. People would make grave digging a job. Others would even murder innocent civilians to give to the scientists for money. Universities would allow students to turn in cadavers instead of paying the full tuition. I am impressed with how much respect the cadavers are given now. Students even named their cadavers and bonded with them in a way.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter was really interesting to read because the length theses people went to get a hold of a human body is a lost of words. Like this dedication of furthering their education about the human body is pure biology it self and I found the process to do so is pretty clever.This chapter relates to biology because it shows how much people wanted to find out more about the human body and how it works. So i guess you could say people back than were more hungry to find out about the human body. As degrading as some content were in this chapter as for grave robing and killing people I guess it was okay for better of education in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteCrimes of anatomy had many different examples of what people would do for money. Many people would go through extreme conditions to get hold of and deliver the body, and even though you would get a good lump sum for your job, there is no way that I would ever want to do that, in a past, present, or future life. I also noticed that in the lab, most anatomy students would grow attached to their cadaver and even name them. It would be a bit weird to grow attached to a dead body but its hard to look at a person as anything other than a person.
ReplyDeleteWhat surprised me about this chapter was what people, mainly professors, would do in order to get a cadaver to study. While I was aware that grave robbing was something that tended to happen in the past I was not aware that it was committed by professors in order to teach a class anatomy. What surprised me the most was how desperate some universities were by allowing students to pay tuition fees with a cadaver. This chapter ties in with biology because one of the focuses of this chapter is studying human anatomy. The focus of this chapter was the crimes that were committed in order to further science and medicine.
ReplyDeleteI was also shocked as you are to know that the professors would rob a corpse or even pay a person to do that. It's unbelievable to hear what people did for money.
DeleteChapter two can be described of how cadaver testing how reckless it was being done in the past. Also the certain risk doctors were going through. In order to actually, to do cadaver testing and experimenting on them. Also, how colleges were getting involved in the mischief of grave robbing and how they actually were giving out scholarships to students who were willing to steal bodies. I found all this information to be very astonishing and interesting.
ReplyDeleteThis chapter really shows the passion that researchers had and the big extents that they would go to just to get cadavers. With laws this mischief has been banned and now their are organized ways of getting people to donate their bodies when they die.
DeleteThis chapter touched upon the drastic measures in history that researchers and doctors would go to in order to get cadavers. This includes digging up graves dissecting live criminals in ancient Egypt. Laws at the time permitted this and some universities would give tuition if students would bring back a certain number of bodies from the graves. This all had a lot of shock value and it showed the struggles and passion of anatomy regardless of how "wrong" it seemed, and I can admire that. I liked that this chapter was not sugarcoated and it gave some interesting historical accounts that showed the endurance of researchers and discoveries of anatomy.
ReplyDelete“Crimes of Anatomy” had my attention at the turn of page (as in before I had even acknowledged the words on it). Had I not been well informed of corpse theft before reading this chapter, I would have probably had one more chill run up my spine, joining the other, say, twenty. This fragment of the book definitely aroused my questioning of whether dissecting loved ones was one step too far in the advancement of anatomy and physiology, although it did “raise awareness of the need for organs for transplantation” (Roach 56). Albeit, I believe it was a great investment... Heck, maybe I’ll dissect my own father and sister after they’ve passed on.
ReplyDeleteOr before.
I was kind of shocked while reading this chapter especially when I read that in the nineteenth century people killed each other to sell their cadavers. It was shocking to read, but also fascinating to hear about this field of science. At one point, people would steal recently buried cadavers from the cemetery and sell those. It was impressive to hear that the high class wanted to buy these cadavers to study them. According to the novel and a British record, about 312 bodies were taken in one year. This relates to biology in many ways. In example, people were willing to pay whatever they could to learn more about life and our bodies.
ReplyDeleteIt was crazy for me to read about the supply and crazy demand of cadavers in the nineteenth century. I never imagined such a thing, to be honest! I couldn't believe that people were actually paid to commit crimes and dig out buried cadavers. Reading "Body snatching and other sordid tales from the dawn of human dissection" did even seem real. I reread it because it just seemed that crazy. I was absolutely astonished! That was such a hunger to find out more about humans and their components and that's what mainly lead to these crazy "Crimes of Anatomy".
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