Possessing The Dead

The Artful Science of Anatomy

By: Helen MacDonald

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Paperback | 1 June 2010 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

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302 Pages

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23.39 x 15.6 x 2.08

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London, 1868: visiting Australian Aboriginal cricketer Charles Rose has died in Guy's Hospital. What happened next is shrouded in mystery. The only certainty is that-like Mary Whitehead who died in the nearby Newington Workhouse and Eugene Green who shot himself on a deserted Adelaide railway platform-Charles Rose's body did not go directly to a grave.

Written with clarity and verve, and drawing on a rich array of material, Possessing the Dead explores the disturbing history of the cadaver trade in Scotland, England and Australia, where laws once gave certain officials possession of the dead, and no corpse lying in a workhouse, hospital, asylum or gaol was entirely safe from interference.

With a rare blend of curiosity, delight in the unexpected and an eye for detail, award-winning historian Helen MacDonald brings to life this gruesome past to reveal the chicanery at play behind the procuring of bodies for dissections, autopsies and collections.

Author Information

Helen MacDonald is the author of the critically acclaimed Human Remains, which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award (History) and was short-listed for the Ernest Scott History Prize. She is a Senior Fellow at The Australian Centre in the School of Historical Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Industry Reviews

"MacDonald is that rare and precious commodity: a crack historian with a taste for the bizarre." --New York Times Book Review

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Illustrations	p. VI
Terminology	p. VII
Prologue	p. 1
The Ingenious Act	p. 7
After the Murders	p. 15
A Body Buried is a Body Wasted	p. 43
Trafficking in the Dead	p. 74
The Morbid Anatomist	p. 94
Truganini's Skin	p. 125
Dr Belgrave and Humanity's Discards	p. 152
The Government's Bodies	p. 185
Dealing with the Dead	p. 216
Notes	p. 231
Bibliography	p. 261
Acknowledgements	p. 280
Index	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Possessing The Dead

The Artful Science of Anatomy

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

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