Mortsafe
A Mortsafe is a cage-like security of a grave , usually made of iron, to prevent corpses from being stolen.
background
At the beginning of the 19th century, considerably more human corpses were needed for anatomical research and teaching purposes in Great Britain than were officially available. At the same time, the number of those executed decreased, whose bodies were basically available for sections according to the law and were intended for such purposes.
Doctors and anatomists then bought corpses at high prices to dissect in front of paying students . These lectures, often held privately, brought high income for the anatomists, while in return the would-be physicians were certified to have attended the three anatomical lectures required for their training. This led to a new kind of crime, the theft of the bodies of the newly deceased after their burial by so-called "resurrection makers". The authorities initially largely ignored this form of crime, also in order not to hinder scientific progress.
To the chagrin of the relatives, the robbery took on considerable proportions over time due to the very high purchase sums of up to £ 15 per corpse and the low threat of punishment for corpse thieves. An average of £ 10 redeemed per corpse was the equivalent of three times the wages of a farm laborer in one harvest season or the wages of a canal builder for 100 days of hard labor. However, the few cases in which people were murdered in order to sell their corpses to anatomists became more popular. In 1827 and 1828 the West Port murders in Edinburgh were committed for this motive .
Safeguards
In order to prevent the excavation of the corpses, various measures were taken, including securing graves with plate mines and self- firing systems such as the Clemishaw anti-corpse deterrent, setting up armed guards in cemeteries or decaying corpses in castle-like houses of the dead until they were "unusable" for them Section. While the former security measures usually only harmed uninvolved visitors to the cemetery, the incomplete guarding by guards, some of whom were corrupt, could hardly prevent the theft of corpses by well-organized gangs. Further security measures were reinforced coffins, excavation-resistant layers of earth or an increased number of coffin nails, which usually only wealthy survivors could afford.
Mortsafes in Scotland
In the Scottish region in particular, the Mortsafe was used as a further security measure. It was a cage made of iron or an iron coffin shell, which encased the coffin during the first decomposition processes or was set in concrete on the grave and then after a certain time was reused for the next death.
They were invented around 1816 and produced in different variations. In addition to iron bars, iron plates and stones were sometimes incorporated in order to maintain the greatest possible weight. Several Mortsafes were also attached to each other with padlocks.
In one variant, an iron plate was placed on the coffin and vertical iron struts were inserted through pre-drilled holes towards the floor. So that these iron struts could not simply be pulled out again, they were locked with a second plate resting on it. After a lay period of usually six weeks, the corpse was now decomposed enough to no longer be of interest to the corpse thieves and the construction was unlocked again and used for the next corpse . A copy of this type can be found in the Marischal Museum in Aberdeen .
The Mortsafes were used by parishes who rented them out to their bereaved. But societies also emerged that made this equipment available to their members for a fee or rented it to others.
Mortsafes are available around all Scottish medical schools. In Scottish Protestantism, the belief in the physical resurrection was widespread and at the same time the leading medical education, which is why conflicts between corpse robbers, anatomists and the citizenry occasionally escalated.
Legal measures
On May 11, 1832, the second attempt at an Anatomy Act was passed that banned the dissection of corpses of unknown origin and instead released the socially disadvantaged who had died in workhouses and poor houses for dissection, provided that no relatives made a timely claim to the corpse and thereby proved the necessary funds for a funeral, and so the theft of the corpse took the foundation.
The legislative initiative for this was discussed as early as 1829, but one attempt that year failed before the British House of Lords , which emphasized the right of the poor to a decent burial. In particular, the Archbishop of Canterbury , William Howley , opposed the regulation, among other things because it would equate the deceased socially disadvantaged with executed criminals. The mood changed with the West Port murders, so that the 1832 Act passed the House of Lords at the instigation of Baron Thomas Babington Macaulay and Daniel O'Connell .
The populist William Cobbett used this for a polemic: “ … they tell us it was necessary for the purposes of science. Science? Why, who is science for? Not for poor people. Then if it be necessary for the purposes of science, let them have the bodies of the rich, for whose benefit science is cultivated. "( William Cobbett : JG Crowther: Statesmen of Science . Cresset Press, London 1965, pp . 9. , German:" ... You tell us that this is necessary for the purposes of science. Science? Why, for whom is it science? Not for the poor. If it is necessary for science, then let them take the bodies of the wealthy who benefit from science. "
Preserved mortsafes
Today only a few mortsafes have survived, some of which are exhibited in Scottish cemeteries and some of which are heavily corroded due to age. Few specimens are in local museums, two more, which are well preserved, at the old Aberfoyle Church in Stirling , a Mortsafe is at Skene Parish Church , Kirkton of Skene in Aberdeenshire , one specimen was kept by the East Lothian Antiquary Society restored and provided with an information board. Another well-preserved specimen can be found in Glasgow in the cathedral cemetery.
However, numerous documents relating to these devices can be found in libraries and contemporary archives.
literature
- Geoff Holder: Scottish Bodysnatchers . The History Press, Port Stroud 2010, ISBN 978-0-7524-5603-4 .
Web links
- Martyn Gorman: An introduction to grave robbing in Scotland , University of Aberdeen.
Individual evidence
- ↑ East London History ( Memento of the original from February 13, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Hans Schmid: Law and crime - the country needs fresh corpses. In: Telepolis . July 29, 2012.
