Various Anatomy Acts from 1832 onwards had attempted to regulate the procurement of bodies for dissection at medical schools. Under these Acts the Home Office set up the HM Inspectorate of Anatomy in 1842.

Bodies were generally acquired from workhouses, infirmaries and asylums; undertakers would deliver the bodies to the relevant institutions, and remove them for burial later. (1)

The Society of Apothecaries holds the stubs of two teachers memorandum books that originally contained the official printed forms required to accompany each body. The stubs cover the period from September 1888 to March 1911.

The details include name, age, sex, last address, address body received from, date of death, cause of death, date body received, from whom, and date of removal for burial.

There are a total of 95 names in the books and most of these people came from workhouses/infirmaries and asylums in and around the London area, for example: Camberwell, East Dulwich, Kensington, Marylebone, Wandsworth, Greenwich, Newington and Banstead.


(1) Procuring Corpses: the English Anatomy Inspectorate 1842-1858 by Helen MacDonald
In Medical History, Jul 2009 53(3):379-396