Anatomy, in Law. The difficulty of obtaining a sufficient supply of human bodies for dissection for purposes of surgical and medical instruction, gave rise, in the beginning of the 19th century, to the Resurrectionists (q.v.), and to the horrible crimes for which Burke was executed in 1828. This matter was accordingly made the subject of statutory legislation, and is now governed by the Anatomy Acts of 1832 and 1871. These Acts authorise the Home Secretary to grant licenses to practise anatomical dissection to any qualified medical practitioner, or any teacher or student of anatomy. A supervision of schools of anatomy is carried on by three inspectors (for England, Ireland, and Scotland), who make quarterly returns (unprinted) to the Home Office of the human subjects used in each district. In the absence of a contrary wish expressed by the deceased or a surviving relative, the Act authorises an executor to submit the body of the deceased to dissection, but where the deceased has directed this to be done, the Act recognises the right of near relatives to object. Bodies are not to be removed for examination until forty-eight hours after death, nor without a certificate by the medical attendant, stating, according to the best of his knowledge or belief, the manner or cause of death. The person receiving the body must intimate the fact to the inspector, and must afterwards send to him a certificate of decent burial. The Act does not apply to any post-mortem examination of any human body required or directed to be made by any competent legal authority.
This system is understood to have met the evil it was designed to obviate; and under it the supply of bodies of persons dying friendless, in poor-houses, hospitals, and elsewhere, is stated to have proved sufficient for the wants of the profession.