THE BODIES OF EXECUTED CRIMINALS.

West Coast Times, Issue 230, 14 June 1866, Page 3

THE BODIES OF EXECUTED CRIMINALS.

A very interesting question has been lately discussed in Glasgow ; the propriety of making the most of the dead bodies of executed criminals. The question is a very old one, and has been the subject of discussion and legislation for centuries. We get a concise history of the legislation upon this matter in the address lately delivered by Professor Buchanan, of Glasgow, and in the Glasgow Herald which has supported the Professor in his views. This is briefly as follows :— ln 1540, a law was passed in England, which gave annually four bodies of malefactors to the anatomists for dissection. Later- than this, dissection post mortem was made a part of ,the sentence. .Every criminal that was executed had to be dissected. The doctor followed the executioner. The consequence of this was that the post mortem examination of bodies came to be regarded with prejudice by all decent people as a thing ignominious. And j some of this feeling survives to this day, despite the efforts 'of great and good men to show in the interest of the living the wisdom of such examinations. In 1832, the law went to the opposite extreme, and forbade the post mortem examination of criminals on any account whatever. Dr Buchanan, supported by the Glasgow Herald, complains of this law, and desires that the bodies of criminals should bo held available for any use that science and anatomy might dictate at any time ; that, before death, criminals under capital sentence should have the option of a commutation of sentence on the condition of submitting their cprpus vile to some riskful experi- , ment that might be for the public good; at any rate, that after death the fullest examination of their bodies should be made legitimate. — The Lancet.