Cadaver

A cadaver, often known as a corpse, is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Students in medical school study and dissect cadavers as a part of their education. Others who study cadavers include archaeologists and arts students. In addition, a cadaver may be used in the development and evaluation of surgical instruments.

The term cadaver is used in courts of law (and, to a lesser extent, also by media outlets such as newspapers) to refer to a dead body, as well as by recovery teams searching for bodies in natural disasters. The word comes from the Latin word cadere ("to fall"). Related terms include cadaverous (resembling a cadaver) and cadaveric spasm (a muscle spasm causing a dead body to twitch or jerk). A cadaver graft (also called “postmortem graft”) is the grafting of tissue from a dead body onto a living human to repair a defect or disfigurement. Cadavers can be observed for their stages of decomposition, helping to determine how long a body has been dead.

Cadavers have been used in art to depict the human body in paintings and drawings more accurately.

Observation of the various stages of decomposition can help determine how long a body has been dead.

The rate of decomposition depends on many factors including temperature and the environment. The warmer and more humid the environment, the faster the body is broken down. The presence of carrion-consuming animals will also result in exposure of the skeleton as they consume parts of the decomposing body.

The history of the use of cadavers is filled with controversy, scientific advancements, and new discoveries. Beginning in the 3rd century ancient Greece two physicians by the name of Herophilus of Chalcedon and Erasistratus of Ceos practiced the dissection of cadavers in Alexandria, and it was the dominant means of learning anatomy. After both of these men died, the popularity of anatomical dissection decreased until it was not used at all. It was not revived until the 12th century and it became increasingly popular in the 17th century and has been used ever since.

Even though both Herophilus and Erasistratus had permission to use cadavers for dissection, there was still a large amount of taboo surrounding the use of cadavers for anatomical purposes, and these feelings continued for hundreds of years. From the time that anatomical dissection gained its roots in the 3rd century to around the 18th century, it was associated with dishonor, immorality, and unethical behavior. Many of these notions were because of religious beliefs and esthetic taboos, and were deeply entrenched in the beliefs of the public and the church. As mentioned above, the dissection of cadavers began to once again take hold around the 12th century. At this time dissection was still seen as dishonorable; however, it was not outright banned. Instead, the church put forth certain edicts for banning and allowing certain practices. One that was monumental for scientific advancement was issued by the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II in 1231. This decree stated that a human body would be dissected once every five years for anatomical studies, and that attendance was required for all who were training to or currently practicing medicine or surgery. This led to the first sanctioned human dissection since 300 B.C., which was performed publicly by Mondino de Liuzzi. This time period created a great deal of enthusiasm in what human dissection could do for science and attracted students from all over Europe to begin studying medicine.

In light of the new discoveries and advancements that were being made, religious moderation of dissection relaxed significantly; however, the public perception of it was still negative. Because of this perception, the only legal source of cadavers was the corpses of criminals who were executed, usually by hanging. Many of the offenders whose crimes “warranted” dissection and their families even considered dissection to be more terrifying and demeaning than the crime or death penalty itself. There were many fights and sometimes even riots when relatives and friends of the deceased and soon to be dissected tried to stop the delivery of corpses from the place of hanging to the anatomists. The government at the time (17th century) took advantage of these qualms by using dissection as a threat against committing serious crimes. They even increased the number of crimes that were punished by hanging to over 200 offenses. Nevertheless, as dissection of cadavers became even more popular, anatomists were forced to find other ways to obtain cadavers.