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    Dissecting the Criminal Corpse

    Staging Post-Execution Punishment in Early Modern England

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    Author(s)
    T. Hurren, Elizabeth
    Collection
    Wellcome
    Language
    English
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    Abstract
    Those convicted of homicide were hanged on the public gallows before being dissected under the Murder Act in Georgian England. Yet, from 1752, whether criminals actually died on the hanging tree or in the dissection room remained a medical mystery in early modern society. Dissecting the Criminal Corpse takes issue with the historical cliché of corpses dangling from the hangman’s rope in crime studies. Some convicted murderers did survive execution in early modern England. Establishing medical death in the heart-lungs-brain was a physical enigma. Criminals had large bull-necks, strong willpowers, and hearty survival instincts. Extreme hypothermia often disguised coma in a prisoner hanged in the winter cold. The youngest and fittest were capable of reviving on the dissection table. Many died under the lancet. Capital legislation disguised a complex medical choreography that surgeons staged. They broke the Hippocratic Oath by executing the Dangerous Dead across England from 1752 until 1832.
    URI
    http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/32102
    Keywords
    georgian england; convicts; murderers; homicide; early modern england; murder act; crime studies; Anatomy; Autopsy; Capital punishment; Dissection; Gallows; Hanging; London; Surgeons' Hall; Surgery
    DOI
    10.1057/978-1-137-58249-2
    ISBN
    9781137582485
    OCN
    967626082
    Publisher
    Springer Nature
    Publisher website
    https://www.springernature.com/gp/products/books
    Publication date and place
    Basingstoke, 2016
    Grantor
    • Wellcome Trust - 095904
    Imprint
    Palgrave Macmillan
    Series
    Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife,
    Classification
    European history
    Social and cultural history
    History of science
    Pages
    326
    Chapters in this book
    • Chapter Bibliography
    • Chapter PART II: PREAMBLE
    • Chapter 4 Delivering Post-Mortem Harm: Cutting the Corpse
    • Chapter 1 The Condemned Body Leaving the Courtroom
    • Chapter Preface
    • Chapter 3 In Bad Shape: Sensing the Criminal Corpse
    • Chapter PART I: Introduction
    • Chapter Abbreviations
    • Chapter 6 The Disappearing Body: Dissection to the Extremities
    • Chapter 2 Becoming Really Dead: Dying by Degrees
    • Chapter 5 Mapping Punishment: Provincial Places to Dissect
    • Chapter 7 He that Hath an Ill-Name Is Half-Hanged: The Anatomical Legacy of the Criminal Corpse
    Public remark
    Relevant Wikipedia pages: Anatomy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy; Autopsy - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autopsy; Capital punishment - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment; Dissection - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dissection; Gallows - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallows; Hanging - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging; London - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London; Surgeons' Hall - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgeons%27_Hall; Surgery - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgery
    Rights
    https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
    • Imported or submitted locally

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    License

    • If not noted otherwise all contents are available under Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

    Credits

    • logo EU
    • This project received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 683680, 810640, 871069 and 964352.

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