Report from the Select Committee on Anatomy. Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 22 July 1828.
On 27 January 1829, William Burke, of the infamous Burke and Hare grave-robbing duo, was hanged and then dissected by none other than Alexander Monro Tertius. To obtain cash, Burke and Hare began supplying Dr Robert Knox, Tertius' great medical rival, with bodies of people they murdered. Their illegal activities continued until suspicion was raised about the disappearance of Mary Docherty, an Irish beggar. Her body was found in a large tea-chest in the laboratory at Knox's Medical school. Burke and Hare were promptly arrested. All these events were timely. Some months earlier, the Select Committee in Anatomy drafted a Bill for preventing the unlawful Disinterment of Human Bodies and for regulating the Schools of Anatomy.
Report from the Select Committee on Anatomy. Ordered, by the House of Commons, to be printed, 22 July 1828.