This book has so far examined the level of public concern over anatomy and dissection before the passing of the Anatomy Act and the extent of bodysnatching activity in Oxford and Manchester. While the poor were most at risk from the bodysnatcher, all classes of society were affected by the risk of anatomization. The 1832 Anatomy Act went a step further, specifically targeting the poor alone for dissection by allowing the so-called unclaimed bodies of those dying in workhouses and other public institutions to be used by licensed anatomists. The present chapter examines, firstly, the passing of the Anatomy Act, including the circumstances that finally galvanized Parliament into action. Richardson has examined the Select Committee on Anatomy in her groundbreaking work, and so this chapter focuses on aspects of this institution not detailed by Richardson, and particularly when its proceedings cast light upon anatomy in Manchester and Oxford. The research examines opinions and actions in Parliament, through Hansard, around the passing of the Act, an area that has been somewhat neglected by historians of the Anatomy Act.

It is also necessary to investigate the further demonstrations of public disquiet that took place during and immediately after the passing of the Anatomy Act. The previous chapter commenced the discussion of a problem in discerning any particular public concern over the passing of the Act, but there is in fact much evidence in contemporary local newspapers of public fears over ‘burking’, or murder for the purpose of dissection, particularly in Manchester.