A history of the science of anatomy, from the ancient practice of human vivisection in the Greek Empire to the endemic grave robbing of 19th-century Britain.
Eighteenth century surgeons needed bodies to try out new operations and teach anatomy, but they were limited to six corpses of hanged murderers per year for dissection. So anatomy spawned a new profession - the 'resurrection men' or body snatchers - who plundered fresh graves for bodies. Grave robbing was so widespread that British graveyards had to be fortified against the nocturnal thieves with watchtowers, booby-traps and cages around graves. Inevitably the illicit trade in bodies for the anatomist's table got out of hand - famously Edinburgh serial killers Burke and Hare sold 16 murdered bodies to an anatomy school, forcing a change in the law. But a dark shadow was cast over the British medical profession and it lives on today, with the scandal at Alder Hey where children's organs were plundered without consent.
More than 8 million people around the world have seen the exhibits in Gunther Von Hagens' exhibition of flayed and dissected corpses, but the professor has been accused of desecrating bodies by religious leaders, as well as medical and art experts. Von Hagens' pioneered 'plastination' of bodies 25 years ago - a process that can preserve cadavers for thousands of years. His multi-million institute, based in China, has 200 skilled staff dissecting full-time, with 40 people a week donating their bodies. Some have criticised the anatomist of a 'Disney style' approach to his work - posing the bodies as chess players and horse-riders - and there have been questions asked about the sources of some of the exhibits. But he is just the latest in a long line of brilliant scientists to have brought turned anatomy into a spectacle.
