Even the bleakest Charles Dickens novel would struggle to do justice to the grimness of some of the Victorian aesculapian practices revealed in a unexampled study by research worker from Cambridge University . analyze the skeletal remains of 54 children whose consistency had been dissected by anatomists at the University during the 18th and nineteenth centuries , researchers have reveal some perturbing details regarding how these babe specimen were obtain and treated .
According to the composition , which look in theJournal of Anatomy , child corps were come across as a “ appreciate source of knowledge ” by Georgian and Victorian era anatomists . This is largely because they allowed scientist to take the former stages of human development , as well as congenital abnormalities that direct to former deaths . As such , they were extremely sought after for both research and education purposes , and often display in museum .
However , the availability of baby ’s consistency was largely dependent on waver socio - cultural broker . For lesson , after study historical records relate to the corpses obtained by the University , the research worker learned that during the early 1800s , anatomist largely relied on grave - robbers – or “ resurrectionists ” – to supply them with their study material .
But because these unscrupulous individuals incline to deal their “ good ” by the in , they were often loath to jab up dead children , instead favoring improbable burly men . As such , scientists struggled to get their hands on infant corps , until the Anatomy Act of 1832 allowed hospitals andworkhousesto donate dead bodies to science if unclaimed by relatives .
Ascholeraand other epidemic swept through Victorian England , hospital soon vaunt an teemingness of baby corpses for anatomists to sink their scalpels into , while Oliver Twist - style workhouses also contribute their just parcel of wipe out childhood .
The position then became even more macabre two years later , when the New Poor Law Amendment Act move out all child backing service for individual mothers , in an attempt to monish outlawed nascency . As a consequence , many pitiable women who fell pregnant out of union found themselves in a heroic situation , and often took the heartbreaking conclusion to mutilate their newborns and deal them to researchers , using the money to feed the other members of their starving home .
double : A dissected fetal skull . Jenna Dittmar
Once in the will power of investigator , babe corpses were handled with much greater care than those of adult . For instance , while most in full grown bodies had the tops of their nous saw off in a subroutine called a craniotomy , the study authors found that only one of the 54 child specimens underwent this process . The others had all had the flesh carefully removed from the skull in ordering to preserve as much of the bone as possible , so that the bodies could be presented in museums .
keep back minor bodies intact also ensured they stay valuable instruction tools . For example , by injecting a whole body with non-white wax , scientists could highlight the intact circulatory andnervous organization . As such , they tended to take redundant precaution when take apart these specimen . For instance , while anatomists often cracked the rib of adult bodies when attempting to access and dissect the pectus , they tended to leave behind these bones untasted in baby , alternatively going in through the gristle between their rib .
According tostudy atomic number 27 - author Jenna Dittmar , " the skulls appear to have been intentionally spare to preserve them for teaching or display . This may excuse why so few children with signs of dissection on their bones have been recovered from the entombment grounds of hospital or parish church , equate with grownup . "
Only one of the 54 baby and foetal skull had undergone a craniotomy . Journal of Anatomy
