Alexander Monro (tertius) Charles found the sight of surgery so upsetting that he stopped trying and turned his attention to natural history. During Monro's tenure as Professor of Anatomy, Edinburgh was rocked by scandal due to the notorious "Burke and Hare murders" in which healthy individuals were intentionally killed in order to supply cadavers for dissection by anatomy lecturers and their students. One of the murderers, William Burke, was hanged on 28 January 1829, after which he was famously dissected at the Edinburgh Medical College by Monro himself. In a letter, Monro dipped his quill pen into Burke's blood and wrote, "This is
History of anatomy in the 19th century horror of being the subject of dissection. The criminal temptations ultimately led to the 1827–1828 West Port murders in Edinburgh, UK, where likely candidates were killed and sold for cash. The murders led to the passing of the Anatomy Act 1832 which finally provided for an adequate and legitimate supply of corpses. History of anatomy in the 19th century The history of anatomy in the 19th century saw anatomists largely finalise and systematise the descriptive human anatomy of the previous century. The discipline also progressed to establish growing sources of knowledge in histology and developmental biology, not only of humans