Public dissection will be first since days of Burke and Hare

NC

Cadavers will form part of public lectures in Edinburgh with a series of six workshops beginning next month.

The lectures will feature the dissection of a real human arm to get under the skin to the real flesh and bones of anatomy.

The day-long sessions, which cost 100 each, are the first to be held in the city since its medical school was embroiled in the murder spree committed by William Hare and William Burke.

The pair suffocated 16 victims, who were sold to the medical school for around 7 each.

In 1832 the Anatomy Act was passed, banning public dissections. But the passing of the Human Tissue (Scotland) Act, 2006, has paved the way for universities to revive public anatomy lectures as long as they deal ethically and appropriately with human remains.

Edinburgh Universitys Professor Thomas Gillingwater, the academic behind the project, said: If you go back to the early 1800s, the public were more clued up on anatomy than they are now. Back then, 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.

He added: We want people who have reason to learn more anatomy to do so legally, safely and with the right level of instruction, in an expert environment with access to actual human material.

The cadaveric material allows you to see bones with ligaments attached or the muscles all around it, the nerves supply, the blood vessels, to see the whole functioning upper limb.

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Public dissection will be first since days of Burke and Hare