HOME WEB NEWS IMAGES CLASSIFIEDS YELLOW PAGESPOLLS - SURVEYS WIKI COUNTRIES PHOTOS US UK INDIA
Cities Stocks Weather Movies Coupons Travel Blogs Health Horoscope Maps ASIA EUROPE Classifieds Yellow Pages
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
 1
|
|
|
This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.
|
For other uses, see Cadaver (disambiguation).
"Corpse" redirects here. For other uses, see Corpse (disambiguation).
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body. "Cadaver" is normally used as a more formal name for a body being used in medical training or research.
Contents |
The process of the decay of the human body is a subject that needs to be studied to help advance criminal science. Different stages of decomposition can help determine how long a body has been dead.
The first stage is self digestion, also known as autolysis. This happens when the cells break down the body into elements the cells can eat. This creates a liquid that gets between the layers of skin and makes the skin peel off. Also during this stage, flies (when present) start to lay eggs in the openings of the body: eyes, belly button, open wounds, and other orifices. They then get under the skin and start to eat the body. The maggots that find the body in the first stage are about as small as uncooked grains of rice.
The second stage of decomposition is bloating. When bacteria breaks down the body it makes gas. When we are alive it makes gas from the food we eat. Once one dies it ends up feeding off the tissue in the body and gas will build up. But the gas cannot escape from a corpse because the small intestine collapses very early on. The bloating usually happens in the abdomen, but can also be seen in the mouth and genitalia, where the most bacteria congregate. The tongue will swell and stick out. This usually happens in about the second week of decomposition. Bloating will keep happening until something gives way. Most of the time it’s the intestines, but on occasion it can be the actual torso, and that usually involves a ripping noise. In the second stage the maggots look like cooked grains of rice: moist, stuck together and larger. The bloat stage usually lasts about a week and then putrefaction and decay set in.
The third stage is putrefaction and decay. It’s the longest process and the last stage. Putrefaction starts during the bloat stage but the effects aren’t obvious until after the bloat stage is over. Putrefaction is when the body breaks down, and tissues and bacteria liquefy. The digestive organs, the brain, and lungs disintegrate first because that’s where the most bacteria are. For about three weeks the organs inside are still identifiable, but after that everything inside turns into the consistency and color of chicken soup. The muscles can be eaten by bacteria, but also be devoured by carnivorous beetles. Under some circumstances the skin is eaten by various things including bacteria and bugs, or it just dries out and hardens. Then nothing really wants to eat it because the skin is too tough. Eventually all that is left is the skeleton.
When a corpse is buried in six feet of soil and in a coffin the body will still eventually decompose because not all bacteria need oxygen to survive. Corpses buried in coffins are usually embalmed. First the embalmers clean the face, shave it, fill the eyes with cotton to make them appear more full, put eye caps on to keep the eyes shut, and suture the jaw together to keep it from hanging open. Then they embalm the body. They use the circulatory system to pump liquids into the body’s cells to put the decomposition process on hold. The embalmers take an artery in the neck and pump fluids into the body. This will rehydrate the tissue filling out a gaunt looking face and adding color to the skin. This embalming process will keep the body looking presentable for the funeral and not much longer after that.
Even though the corpse is embalmed, it may look terrifying and disturbing to certain viewers. Embalming is used to preserve the corpse temporarily, but may last for years too. Putting make-up on the corpse will make the body look good for public presentation.
Embalmers sometime are unable to embalm corpse, due to accidents, diseases, and other beyond body changing results. A closed casket funeral can be arranged, if this situation was to occur.
The methods of preserving cadavers, and their acquisition, have changed over the last 200 years. Criminals that were executed for their crimes were used as the first cadavers. The demand for cadavers increased when the amount of criminals being executed decreased. Since corpses were in such high demand, some people decided to steal bodies from graves in order to keep the market supplied. From 1827 to 1828 in Scotland, murders were carried out, so that the bodies could be sold to medical schools for cash. These were known as the West Port murders. The Anatomy Act of 1832 was formed and passed because of the murders. Cadavers used to be used when they were fresh, but that did not always work out, and it was hard to keep them preserved. Preservation was needed in order to carry out classes and lessons about the human body. Glutaraldehyde was the first main chemical used for embalming and preserving the body. Glutaraldehyde leaves a yellow stain in the tissues, which can interfere with observation and research. Formaldehyde is the chemical that is used as the main embalming chemical now. It is a colorless solution that maintains the tissue in its life-like texture and can keep the body well preserved for up to six weeks.
Human bodies and remains are being sold illegally all over the world without permission from deceased. In India cadavers were being sold to the Medical college run by Muslim Educational Society from the Kozhikode Government Medical College illegally and started a large commotion on the campus. At UCLA Henry Reid and Ernest Nelson were found guilty of harvesting body parts and selling them to other companies from the Willed Body Program. When body parts are donated for organ transplants they are kept under strict regulations, which does not hold true for bodies and parts donated for research and educational purposes. In Leigh Ajan’s case, her mother’s body was sent to the Tulane University for research on kidney and heart diseases. Not long after arriving at Tulane University, she was sent to a brokerage for bodies. This brokerage usually sells the bodies to the U.S. Army to be used for land mine tests. Along with the U.S. Army, bodies and parts have been sold to other companies and people instead of being cremated or buried. In Annie Cheney’s book she writes about bodies being sold from brokers to clients, such as scientists, pharmaceutical companies, and tissue banks. These are just a few cases of abuse, though there may be more out there.
In the anatomy classes of today cadavers are treated with respect, when an arm is moved it is not picked up and dropped into place, it is lifted with care and gently set down, cadavers are treated much like they are sleeping. But cadavers have not always been treated with that much respect. Before modern science cadavers were stolen from graves, deceased relatives, and criminals to provide for science.
The “father of anatomy” was Herophilus, he was the first physician to dissect bodies, in 300 B.C. in Alexandria Egypt. At some point he got carried away and rumor had it that he started to dissect live criminals.
The tradition of dissecting criminals was carried up into the eighteenth and nineteenth century when anatomy schools became popular in England and Scotland. The need for cadavers grew but the supply stayed the same. Church going folk of that time believed literal raising from the dead, so getting dissected ruined your chances of going to heaven.[citation needed] So people weren’t exactly offering their bodies up for the sake of science.
The only cadavers available were criminals\', and it was bad to get executed but it was even worse to get dissected. So anatomists came to be portrayed as nothing better than an executioner. But they still needed the bodies so these anatomy schools took to stealing bodies from graves. They weren’t considered grave robbers because it was a crime to get caught with the deceased jewelry, but getting caught with the deceased was not a crime at all. There were anatomy instructors that encouraged body snatching, as it came to be called. They would encourage the students of late night pranks to provide bodies for the classes. Also another fairly common occurrence was tuition being paid in corpses.
Some of the anatomy instructors took it upon themselves to do the body snatching, but these weren’t low life “quacks.” These men were at the top of their profession. One anatomist, Thomas Sewell, was convicted in 1818 of digging up a corpse for dissection. He later became the personal physician for three U.S. presidents.
With this shortage of bodies extreme measures were used, anatomists started toting their dead family members to the dissection table. William Harvey, the man famous for discovering the circulatory system, was so dedicated he took his dead father and sister to the dissection table.
By 1828 anatomists were paying others to do the digging. In London by that time, anatomy schools had employed 10 full time body snatchers and about two hundred part timers during the dissection season. This season ran from October to May to avoid the smells and the decomposition that is sped up with the summer heat. During this season a crew of about six or seven could dig up about 312 bodies. These crews consisted of random employees looking to make a few dollars. Well actually more than a few dollars, the average body snatcher made about 1,000 dollars a year, ten times more than the average unskilled laborer of that time period, with summers off.
To avoid the odors that followed a freshly dissected human they would bury the cadavers out behind the school with lack of better way to dispose of them. Rumors had it that the anatomists were in cahoots with the zoo keepers, others were said to keep vultures on hand. In some extreme cases they were rumored to make soap and candles and the anatomists would give them away as gifts.
For nearly a century this continued the shortage of cadavers for anatomists. The poor had the most to lose, for they could not afford coffins to keep the body snatchers out. The poor were the most likely to be dissected. In one case a man staying at a boardinghouse died in one of the beds before paying his bills. Being dead and unable to come up with the bill the owner of the boarding house sold the body to an anatomist.
By this time people had started to kill others when they realized what good money could be made off of cadaver sales. Listed down below are two of the famous cases that had to do with people murdering for cadaver money.
•Burke and Hare- This is the most famous case of murder for the reason of making money for cadavers. Burke and Hare ran a boardinghouse and one of their tenants died, they decided to bring him to Alexander Monro’s anatomy rooms in Edinburgh. They made a total of seven pounds. They realized what a good money making venture this was and over the next nine months supposedly murdered sixteen people and sold them to different anatomists. They were eventually caught and Burke was found guilty and was hung and publicly dissected. Hare escaped England where he got another job as a plasterer’s apprentice until they found out who he was and they threw him in a lime pit. He was blinded and begged on the streets for the rest of his life.
•Bishop, May and Williams- These men killed little boys. They were already body snatchers but killed a ten, eleven and fourteen year old. The anatomist that they sold the cadavers to was suspicious. To delay the departure the anatomists said they needed to break a fifty pound note and the police were sent for and arrests were made. In Bishop\'s confession he stated, “I have followed the course of obtaining a lively hood as a body snatcher for twelve years, and have obtained and sold, I think from 500 to 1,000 bodies”
By the 1890s body snatching was a less common occurrence and by the 20th century it had all but disappeared. Embalming and preservation of cadavers became more advanced helping in the decline of body snatching. Education in medical schools started to improve, gone were the days of hasty dissection, to beat the decomposition process. These dissections were orderly and complete. Medical schools put a graded curriculum in place and more education was needed for graduation. The medical profession received new esteem and more respect by healing and diagnosing more people. Therefore with that respect a larger supply of cadavers was available, making body snatching almost non-existent.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from Wikipedia
