Legal Supply
In 1859, there was a reversal of the Massachusetts statute on allowing unclaimed bodies to be used for anatomical teaching and dissection, and it became increasingly difficult to obtain subjects for study. After the Civil War, many New England states began to adopt legal provisions for anatomical dissection and study, but grave-robbing remained a common practice. The Pennsylvania legislature, on June 13, 1883, was the first to enact a law creating an official organization—the Anatomical Board of the State of Pennsylvania—to receive and distribute cadavers for anatomical study. Massachusetts enacted a similar provision in 1898, finally supplying a regular and legal source of anatomical material:
The overseers of the poor of a city or town, the trustees and superintendent of the state almshouse and the commissioners of public institutions in the city of Boston may to any physician or surgeon upon his request, give permission to take the bodies of such persons dying in such town, city, almshouse, workhouse, or public institution of the city of Boston, as are required to be buried at the public expense, to be by him used within the state for the advancement of anatomical science; preference being given to medical schools established by law, for their use in the instruction of students. Every physician or surgeon, before receiving any such dead body, shall give to the board of officers surrendering the same to him a sufficient bond that each body shall be used only for the promotion of anatomical science within this state, and so as in no event to outrage the public feeling; and that, after having been so used, the remains thereof shall be decently buried.
At this same period, developments in embalming and storage of cadavers allowed for a longer period of study of the body and its internal structures.