Body Collected in Australia
A History of Human Specimens and the Circulation of Biomedical Knowledge

By (author) Eugenia Pacitti

ISBN13: 9781350373754

Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Format: Paperback / softback

Published: 30/10/2025

Availability: Not yet available

Description
Offering insight into nineteenth- and early twentieth-century medical school dissecting rooms and anatomy museums, this book explores how collected human remains have shaped Western biomedical knowledge and attitudes towards the body. To explore the role Australia played in the narrative of Western medical development, Pacitti focuses on how and why Australian anatomists and medical students obtained human body parts. As medical knowledge circulated between Australia and Britain, the colony’s physicians conformed to established specimen collecting practices and diverged from them to form a distinct medical identity. Interrogating how these literal and figurative bones of contention have left an indelible mark on the nation’s medical profession, collecting institutions, and communities, Pacitti sheds new light on our understanding of Western medical networks and reveals the opportunities and challenges historic specimen collections pose in the present day. The Body Collected in Australia is a cultural history of collectors and collections that deepens our understanding of the ways the living have used the dead to comprehend the intricacies of the human body in illness and good health.
Introduction: Bones of Contention 1. Dissecting the Culture of Anatomy 2. Collecting and Transforming Body Parts into Specimens 3. Anatomy of a Museum 4. Finding Unrealised Lives 5. War Pathology Specimens 6. Moving Parts Conclusion: Afterlives
  • History of medicine
  • Colonialism & imperialism
  • Professional & Vocational
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List Price: £28.99