View this post on the web at [link removed]

Listen on Apple [ [link removed] ] | Listen on Spotify [ [link removed] ] | RSS Feed [ [link removed] ]
Early 1800s Edinburgh was the heart of medical science in Britain. Its universities attracted ambitious students from across the world, all desperate to learn surgery the old-fashioned way—by cutting bodies open.
But there was a problem: You can’t learn anatomy from a textbook. You need corpses.
And in Edinburgh, there weren’t nearly enough to go around.
Legally, only executed criminals could be dissected. But executions were becoming rare, and medical schools were expanding. Demand far outpaced supply.
So a shadowy trade emerged. Bodies began disappearing from graves. Night watchmen stood guard in cemeteries. Families installed iron cages over loved ones’ tombs.
And when grave-robbing wasn’t enough? Murder wasn’t off the table.
This is a story where science and ethics clashed in the darkest corners of the anatomy theater. Where murder, poverty, and medicine shared a table. Where being poor didn't just mean dying in obscurity—it meant your body might end up in a surgeon's notebook.
More Information:
Burke & Hare by Owen Dudley Edwards [ [link removed] ]
The Knife Man: The Extraordinary Life and Times of John Hunter, Father of Modern Surgery by Wendy Moore [ [link removed] ]

Unsubscribe [link removed]?