page_title: Body snatching
hierarchical_section_title: Body snatching
caption_attribution_description: English: A painting of body snatchers at work on the wall of the Old Crown Inn in the High Street of Penicuik in Midlothian. The inn is about 100 yards from the local parish kirkyard.
context_page_description: Body snatching is the secret removal of corpses from burial sites. A common purpose of body snatching, especially in the 19th century, was to sell the corpses for dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools. Those who practised body snatching were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men". A related act is grave robbery, uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects that had been buried with the deceased; however, grave robbery differs from body snatching in that grave robbing does not involve stealing the corpse itself.
context_section_description: Body snatching is the secret removal of corpses from burial sites. A common purpose of body snatching, especially in the 19th century, was to sell the corpses for dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools. Those who practised body snatching were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men". A related act is grave robbery, uncovering a tomb or crypt to steal artifacts or personal effects that had been buried with the deceased; however, grave robbery differs from body snatching in that grave robbing does not involve stealing the corpse itself.
caption: Body snatchers at work. A painting on the wall of a public house in Penicuik, Scotland
exif: {}