Before the Revolution in France the hospitals of Paris were supported by voluntary contributions, and each had separate funds and Boards of Management, similar to the hospitals in London at the present day. At the Revolution these Boards were consolidated, and one administrative body was formed. This “Administration des Hôpitaux, Hospices et Secours à Domicile de Paris,” carried into effect the law passed by the Legislative Assembly, that the bodies of all those persons who died in hospitals, which were unclaimed within twenty-four hours after death, should be given up for anatomical purposes. The distribution from the hospitals to the medical schools was systematically carried out, generally at night. By Art. 360 of the Penal Code, the punishment for violation of a place of sepulture was imprisonment for a term varying from three months to a year, and a fine of from 60 to 200 francs. The result of these regulations was that exhumation for anatomical purposes was quite unknown.
In Germany the bodies of persons who died in prisons, or penitentiaries, and those of suicides, were given up for dissection, unless the friends of the deceased cared to pay a certain sum to the funds of the school; in this case the body was handed over to the friends. Other sources of supply were the bodies of those persons who died without leaving sufficient to pay the cost of burial, poor people who had been supported at the public cost, all persons executed, and public women. Although these regulations were not rigorously carried out, there was an ample supply of bodies for anatomical purposes, and the resurrection-men were unknown.
In Austria, if the medical attendant thought necessary, a post mortem was made on all patients who died in hospital, but only unclaimed bodies were used for dissection; these were given up to the teachers forty-eight hours after death. In Vienna the supply came from the General Hospital; this was sufficient for all purposes, and there was no recourse to exhumation.
The supply in Italy came from a source similar to that of the other countries named. The rule was that all bodies of persons who died in hospital were given up for dissection if required; but, by paying the cost of the funeral, friends could, if they wished, take away the body. This, however, was seldom done. There was generally a sufficient supply of bodies; but, if this ran short, the subjects were obtained from “the deposit” of poor people who died and were buried at the public cost. In every parish church in Italy there was a chamber in which all the dead bodies of the poor were deposited during the day-time, after the religious ceremonies had been performed over them in the church; at night these bodies were removed either to the dissecting-room or to the burial-fields, outside the town. Body-snatching was quite unknown.
There was an ample supply of bodies in Portugal from similar sources. Mortality was very high amongst infants, who were put into roda, or foundling cradles; the bodies of these children could be obtained without any difficulty. In Portugal the resurrection-man did not exist.