Complete Record - Heirs of Hippocrates No. 2132

JAMES BLAKE BAILEY (fl. 1890). The diary of a resurrectionist, 1811-1812. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1896. 184 pp., plates; 19.2 cm.

Until the passage of the Anatomy Act in 1832, which provided legal means for physicians to obtain cadavers, grave robbing by "resurrection men" was a common practice. This brutally vivid work includes firsthand accounts of the activities of the so-called "sack-em-up" men with satirical caricatures by Rowlandson, and photographs of "mortsafes," specially constructed theft-proof graves and tombs.

Cited references: Cushing B32; Osler 1888

Gift of John Martin, M.D.