Kyra Helberg

Project Title

“He must mangle the living, if he has not operated on the dead”: the Evolving Role of Dissection in Surgical Education, 1741–1832.

Academic Supervisors

• Dr Shane McCorristine (Newcastle University)

• Dr Jonathan Andrews (Newcastle University)

 

Project Description

This research aims to take a deeper look into the role dissection played in education and research in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century surgery. While there is scholarship in the cultural history of bodysnatching, the medical history of dissection in the era of 1741–1832 remains lesser explored. When there is scholarship on dissection in this era, it is confined largely to London and Edinburgh, as these were the largest centres of surgical education at that time. This prevents us from forming a comprehensive picture of the progressing state of surgical and medical education across the whole of Britain, particularly in places where access to medical education was less attainable. Although only five cities were named as accepted anatomy schools in the requirements for a diploma from the Royal College of Surgeons, we know from written and archaeological evidence that dissection was part of medical education in other cities, and we know that smaller schools faced unique barriers in surgical education.