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The cages – known as mortsafes – were used in Scotland in the early 19th century. to stop grave robbers from stealing corpses for use by medical students and anatomists.
In the 18th and early 19th century, an increasing need for fresh corpses by medical schools fueled a burgeoning trade in bodies. Anatomists and medical students needed a constant supply of fresh bodies to practice on. Legitimate supplies of bodies, such as those of executed criminals, could not keep up with the demand. Enterprising people known as resurrectionists would thus dig up the bodies of the recently interred to supply this market. Because a supply of bodies was seen as vital to the advancement of medical science, authorities tended to turn a blind eye to the activities of the grave robbers. Bodies and body parts became a commodity.
Concerned family and friends of people who had died began to take measures to protect the graves of their loved ones. Mortsafes, invented around 1816, were one such measure. Mortsafes were mainly used in Scotland. The steel cages came in a variety of designs and were intended to make it difficult for grave robbers to get to the bodies. The mortsafes were often left on graves for a few weeks until the bodies they protected were sufficiently decayed so that they were no longer of interest to resurrectionists
By Wonders Of The Past

Taipan wrote: Tue May 26, 2026 1:55 pm

The cages – known as mortsafes – were used in Scotland in the early 19th century. to stop grave robbers from stealing corpses for use by medical students and anatomists.
In the 18th and early 19th century, an increasing need for fresh corpses by medical schools fueled a burgeoning trade in bodies. Anatomists and medical students needed a constant supply of fresh bodies to practice on. Legitimate supplies of bodies, such as those of executed criminals, could not keep up with the demand. Enterprising people known as resurrectionists would thus dig up the bodies of the recently interred to supply this market. Because a supply of bodies was seen as vital to the advancement of medical science, authorities tended to turn a blind eye to the activities of the grave robbers. Bodies and body parts became a commodity.
Concerned family and friends of people who had died began to take measures to protect the graves of their loved ones. Mortsafes, invented around 1816, were one such measure. Mortsafes were mainly used in Scotland. The steel cages came in a variety of designs and were intended to make it difficult for grave robbers to get to the bodies. The mortsafes were often left on graves for a few weeks until the bodies they protected were sufficiently decayed so that they were no longer of interest to resurrectionists
By Wonders Of The Past

Docca wrote: Mon Jun 01, 2026 9:41 am



Garden office update: More colour and the Gertrude Jekyll roses I've been trying to grow for two years have burst into life. Bees everywhere