HARVESTING THE DEAD London's Dark Trade in 19th-Century Cadavers with Sarah Wise on Saturday the 21st October 2023 at 1:30 pm Remaining buried and intact posed a significant challenge for the deceased in the 19th century due to the high demand for cadavers by surgeons for dissection. A recently exhumed corpse could command as much as 20 guineas, surpassing the yearly wage of a factory worker. Additionally, valuable body parts like well-muscled limbs, scalps with hair, or even infants ("smalls") were sought after. Sarah Wise Sarah Wise is a social historian and visiting professor at the University of California's London Study Centre. Her previous books include Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England and The Blackest Streets: The Life and Death of a Victorian Slum. Image - Vintage book cover from Evil Under the Sun by Agatha Christie. Creative Commons courtesy of Wikimedia Images. |
---|