Comments on: A Coffin Torpedo

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:20:22 +0000

I live in Ann Arbor; this was written up in ‘The Ann Arbor Observer’ a year or so ago. Apparently the med school professors had one guy on staff to arrange this. They had to go out of town after a grave was discovered dug up, with a dirt trail leading to the med school (~1/4-1/2 mile).

By: Trish

Trish — Sat, 03 Dec 2005 21:41:10 +0000

I can vouch for both books – excellent sources of information, and very entertaining (at least to me…!)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 21:20:14 +0000

That's a cool picture. It's too bad that I don't understand how to search the US Patent Office using the Patent Classification system (which you have to use pre-1975). I was browsing once and came across numerous improvement patents, etc. on ways to protect one's grave from resurrectionists. Of course I can't find them again.

obsession with saving for funeral expenses

It's still quite common here -- many people have small insurances that are intended to only cover the cost of their funeral.

more bodies are donated now than all the medical students in the UK can use

That's interesting. In the US, it is unusual to find somebody who is planning on being a body donor. And there are all kinds of rules associated with it, such as you have to be pre-registered, be in the same state as the medical school, etc.

There was a book published recently -- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach. I'm intending to read it Real Soon Now. I'll also look for Richardson's book. Should be a lively pair!

By: malcolm

malcolm — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 19:11:05 +0000

Another odd invention against the resurrectionists was the mortsafe. A particulalry fine specimen here: http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results.asp?image=10287925&wwwflag=2&imagepos=7

FYI: More about the resurrectionists generally can be found in Ruth Richardson’s interesting “Death Dissection and the Destitute”. It explained the reason for my grandparents’ obsession with having enough money to pay for their funerals. Thanks to the Anatomy act, pauper’s bodies could be requisitioned by the state for dissection. This obsession with saving for funeral expenses persisted for generations after the cause had evaporated– more bodies are donated now than all the medical students in the UK can use.