In late 1828 and early 1829 a news story originated in Edinburgh which horrified and outraged those who heard it. Sixteen people had been murdered in and around Edinburgh’s West Port district and their bodies bought by a respected anatomist, Robert Knox, as subjects for dissection. These murders, now commonly known as the Burke and Hare murders, continue to be notorious. But was there any explanation behind them – why was it in Edinburgh that these murders took place?
A new exhibition at the National Museum of Scotland examines the social and medical history surrounding the practice of dissection of human bodies.looks at Edinburgh’s role as an international centre for medical study and offers insight into the links between
