The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-24 00:00:00

7-- •

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER S.

A BILL FOR REGULATING SCHOOLS
OF ANATOMY.

Note.—The words printed in Italics are proposed to be inserted

in the Committee.]

Whereas a knowledge of the causes and nature of very
many diseases which affect the body, and of the best me-
thods of treating and curing such diseases, and of healing
and repairing divers wounds and injuries to which the hu-
man frame is liable, cannot be acquired but by anatomical
examination. And whereas, therefore, it is highly expe-
dient to give protection, under certain regulations, to the
study and practice of anatomy; be it, therefore, enacted,
by the King's most excellent Majesty, by and with the ad-
vice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal,
and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and
by the authority of the same, that it shall be lawful for his
Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the time being
for the Home Department, on the first day of
in every year, or within fourteen days then next fo,lowing,
to appoint not fewer than three persons to be, during one
year, Inspectors of places where anatomy is carried on ;
and as often as any of the Inspectors to be appointed as
aforesaid shall die, or shall refuse or become unable to
act, to appoint another person to be Inspector in the room
of every Inspector who shall die, or shall refuse or become
unable to act.

And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the said
Secretary of State to direct what district of town or
country, or of both together, with the places where ana-
tomy is carried on, situate within such district, every
such Inspector shall be appointed to superintend ; and the
times and place or places when and where, and in what
manner, every such Inspector shall transact the duties of
his office ; and that the name of every Inspector so
appointed, and the district which he is appointed to super-
intend, and the times and place or places when and where
he will transact the duties of his office, shall be pub-
lished from time to time, as occasion may require, in the
London Gazette.

And be it enacted, that not fewer than one of such In-
spectors shall reside in London, and there transact the
duties of his office ; and that not fewer than one of such
Inspectors shall reside in Edinburgh, and there transact
the duties of his office.
And he it enacted, that every Isispector to be appointed
by virtue of this Act shall receive the returns and ctrtifi•
sates hereinafter directed to be delivered to such Inspector
by all persons practising anatomy within the district which
such Inspector is appointed to superintend ; and shall keep
an account of all such returns and certificates; and shall
inspect and inquire into the condition of any place where
anatomy is carried on-, which the said Secretary of State
may order such Inspector to inspect.
And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for every such
Inspector to visit and inspect, at any time, any place where
anatomy is carried on, on the production by such Inspector
of a written order signed by the said Secretary of State,
directing such Inspector to visit and inspect smell place.
And be it enacted that it shall be lawful for the said
Secretary of State to allow to every such Inspector such
salary for his trouble, and such a sum of money for the
expenses of his office, as to the said Secretary of State
shall appear reasonable; and that an annual return of
all such allowances shall be made to Parliament.

And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the execu-
tor or administrator of any person deceased, or for any party
having lawfully the custody of the body of any such person,
with the consent of the nearest known relative of such person,
to permit the body of such person to undergo anatomical
examination ; unless to the knowledge of such executor or
administrator, or of such party, such person shall have
expressed his desire, either in writing at any time, or orally
in the presence of one or more witnesses, that his body
after death may not undergo such examination.
Provided always, and be it enacted, that in no ease
shall the body of any person be removed for anatomical
examination from any place where such person may have
died, unless a certificate, stating in what manner such
person came by his death, shall, previously to the removal
of the body, have been signed by a medical man who at-
tended such person during the illness whereof he died; or
if no medical man attended such person during such
illness, then by some other medical men : and that in case
of such removal, such certificate shall be delivered, toge-
ther with the body, to the party receiving the same for
anatomical examination.

And be it enacted, that it shall he lawful for any gra-
duate or licentiate in med icine, or any member or fellow
of any College of Surgeons, or any professor, teacher, or
student of medicine or surgery, to receive or possess for
anatomical examination, or to examine anatomically, the
body of any person deceased, provided the party having
lawfully the custody of the body, with the consent of the
nearest known relative of such person, have permitted the
body to undergo anatomical examination ; and provided
such person shall not, to the knowledge of such executor
or administrator, or of such party, have expressed his de-
sire, either in writing at any time, or orally in the presence
of one or more witnesses, that his body after death may
not undergo such examination ; and provided such certi-
ficate as aforesaid shall have been delivered, together with
the body, to the person receiving the same for anatomical
examination. _

And be it enacted, that every party receiving the body
of any person deceased for anatomical examination, if the
body he removed for such examination from the place
where such person died, shall demand and receive, together
with the body, a certificate as aforesaid ; and if an In-
spector shall have been appointed to superintend that dis-
trict, in which is situated the place where such party re-
ceived the body, shall, within twenty-four hours next fol.
lowing the hour at which the body was received, transmit
to such Inspector the certificate received together with the
body, and also a return, stating at what day and hour, and
from whom, the body was received, the date and place of
death, the sex, and (as far as is known at the time) the
Christian and surname, age, and last place of abode of
such person ; and that every party receiving a body for
anatomical examination shall enter, or cause to he entered,
the aforesaid particulars relating to such body, and a copy
of the certificate he received together with the body, in a
book to be kept by him for that purpose, and shall produce
such book whenever required so :o do by any Inspector so
appointed as aforesaid, autyrised to inspect the same by a
written order signed by tne said Secretary of State; and
shall permit any such Inspector to inspect and visit every
place where anatomy is carried on by such party, on the
production by such Inspector of a written order signed by
the said Secretary of State, directing such Inspector to
visit anti inspec.t such place.
And be it enacted, that no graduate or licentiate in
medicine, nor any member or fellow of any College of
Surgeons, nor any professor, teacher, or student of medi-
cine or surgery, shall be liable to any prosecution, penalty,
or punishment for receiving or having in his possession
any dead human body for anatomical examination, or for
examining anatomically any dead human body, or for any
offence against the Act, unless the prosecution shall be in-
stituted by the Attorney-General, or by leave of the Court
of King's Bench, if the alleged offence whereof the party
is accused shall have been committed in England, nor un.
less the prosecution shall be instituted by the public prose-
cutor, if the alleged offence whereof the party is accused
shall have been committed in Scotland.

And be it enacted, that nothing in this Act contained
shall be construed to extend to or to prohibit any post
mortem examination of any human body, required or di-
rected to be made by any competent legal authority.
And whereas an Act was passed in the fourth year of
the reign of his late Majesty, for altering and amending
the laws and usages relating to the interment of the re-
mains of persons against whom there should be had a
finding of felo de se ; and whereas another Act was
passed, in the ninth year of the reign of his late Majesty,
for consolidating and amending the Statutes in England
relative to offences against the person; by which latter
Act it is enacted that the body of every person convicted
of murder shall, after execution, either he dissected or
hung in chains, as to the Court which tried the offender
shall seem meet ; and that the sentence to be pronounced
If the Court shall express, inter ulia, that the body oi
to offender shall be dissected or hung in chains, which-
soever of the two the Court shall order; be it enacted,
that so much of the said last recited Act as authorises the

Court, if it shall see 6t, to direct that the body of a per-
son convicted of murder shall after execution be dissected,
be, and the same is hereby repealed, except so far as so
much of the said Act may repeal the whole or part of any
other Act or Acts.
Arid be it enacted, that the body of every person eon
victed of murder shall, after execution, either be hung in