First public anatomy lectures planned in the UK since Burke and Hare

Edinburgh University is offering six workshops in a dissection laboratory, beginning next month with instruction on the upper limb. Later events will move on to the lower limb, the nervous system and back, the chest, abdomen, pelvis and head and neck.

Dissection was done publicly. You could buy tickets. For some it was entertainment, but for others it was a way of feeding curiosity and finding out what was going on.

"People remember the sordid bit about Dr Knox and Burke and Hare, but a lot of the work that was done at that time was seminal for modern medicine.

"Their history has stopped public access for many years now, but a redrafting of the law with the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act 2006, has allowed a more accessible approach to anatomy departments and that's what we're taking advantage of and starting to reopen access to the public.

Prof Gillingwater said the classes were aimed at people with reasons to study anatomy, and would allow people to handle arms, but not to carry out dissections.

All applicants for the workshops will be vetted, and Prof Gillingwater said applications had already come from school pupils hoping to study medicine, as well as massage therapists and artists.

In London in 2002, Gunther von Hagens, a German professor, carried out the first public post-mortem in the UK since the 1830s, on the corpse of a 72-year-old man, despite a government warning that it was illegal.

Before the Anatomy Act in 1832, there were not enough cadavers for the study of anatomy and Burke and Hare murdered tramps and drunks to profit from the demand. Their trade began in 1827 when William Hare sold the body of an indebted lodger who died for 7 10s.

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First public anatomy lectures planned in the UK since Burke and Hare