Don’t forget those who were murdered to order

The Charles Byrne debate has wider implications.1 Two recent papers demonstrated that subjects depicted in the 18th century anatomical atlases of William Smellie and William Hunter were procured by order to murder pregnant women.2 3 The Hunter Collection probably includes preparations from these women. Concentration camp inmates are now known to have been murdered for Eduard Pernkopf’s anatomical atlas,4 and preparations held by Austrian universities have been buried, although some universities refused.

Contemporary sources indicate that some 200 000 bodies were procured in Britain and Ireland in 1745-1832.5 The evidence of Smellie and Hunter, together with contemporary references and the criminal value of a body, suggest a proportion were murdered to order. Many preparations in medical collections must be derived from such subjects, and the Byrne debate should also include them. Whether they should be buried, I leave others to decide.

However, the victims should not be forgotten. After the Pernkopf debate some libraries withdrew his atlas. I do not propose that for Smellie and Hunter, but I do believe these atlases should represent a memorial to the involuntary sacrifice of these people’s lives, rather than being used to laud Smellie and Hunter as “founding fathers” of obstetrics.