Mystery of Anatomy: Robert Knox

Year 2019, Volume: 13 Issue: 2, 126 - 135, 31.08.2019

Şenay Gül Serap Şahinoğlu

Abstract

Anatomy has been an integral part of medical education for thousands
of years. From the past to the present, the corpses on the dissection tables
have often been the bodies of people dismissed by the community, such as dead
prisoners or the homeless. While dissection studies continued in a similar
manner until the early nineteenth century, the works of Robert Knox, an
anatomist from Edinburgh, played an important role in the emergence of the
Anatomy Act, one of the most striking developments in the field of anatomy.
Robert Knox was a scientist not only interested in anatomy but also art. His
contributions to anatomy and his work in the field of art failed to attract
sufficient and necessary attention due to murders of innocent people committed
by William Hare and William Burke. They murdered these people in order to ensure
the supply of cadavers to anatomists and physicians and compromised Robert Knox
as a knowing participant. This study aims to bring Robert Knox’s contributions
to anatomy and art to light by considering the period in which he lived, the
Industrial Revolution.

Keywords

anatomy, art, dissection, Robert Knox, anatomy act

References

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