Surgeons' Hall demand for bodies for anatomical dissection exceeded supply. Two Irishmen living in Edinburgh, William Burke and William Hare, resorted to murdering victims to supply Knox's anatomy school. Hare turned King's evidence and Burke was tried, found guilty of murder and hanged. His body was dissected by Alexander Monro tertius, the University professor of anatomy, and the museum has on display two items from that notorious episode – Burke's death mask and a pocket book made from his skin. Joseph Bell (1837–1911) was an Edinburgh surgeon who was president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh between 1887–89. He was
Aortic dissection introduced and developed by Michael E. DeBakey, Denton Cooley, and Oscar Creech, cardiac surgeons associated with the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, in 1954. DeBakey developed aortic dissection himself at age 97 in 2005, and underwent surgery in 2006. Endovascular treatment of aortic dissection was developed in the 1990s. Ritter rules are a compilation of reminders, symptoms, and risk factors designed to prevent the misdiagnosis of thoracic aortic dissection. The rules were named for actor John Ritter, who died from a thoracic aortic dissection on September 11, 2003. Ritter was initially misdiagnosed and subsequently treated for a heart attack.