An address on the necessity for investigating the operation of the Anatomy Act : with a detail of proceedings as to an invention for facilitating its administration / by William Roberts.

  • William Roberts
Date:
1832-1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An address on the necessity for investigating the operation of the Anatomy Act : with a detail of proceedings as to an invention for facilitating its administration / by William Roberts. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/44 page 11
    In the parliamentary session of 1840/ I succeeded in inducing Mr, Fitzstephen French, M.P. for Roscommon, to bring the subject before the House, and he moved the following petition should be printed with the votes, it was printed accordingly. The humble Petition of William Roberts, of the City of London, Sheweth— That your Petitioner is the inventor of a process for keeping sub¬ jects intended for anatomical purposes, in a natural, fresh, and moist state, free from decomposition, for months, and, if required, for an in¬ definite period. That your Petitioner’s invention would prevent the loss of stu¬ dents’ lives from the infection of animal poison, and also prevent destruction of health occasioned by the unwholesome atmosphere of dissecting rooms. * That your Petitioner’s process would remove the present diffi¬ culties which the profession have to encounter from the deficiency of material, as one preserved subject would give more anatomical know¬ ledge than is now obtained from five subjects allowed to decompose in the ordinary course of nature. It would also afford the means for summer dissection, which is an important consideration. That your Petitioner, at the request of the leading Anatomists in London, applied, through Mr. Warburton, M.P. to the Government, in March 1836, to adopt your Petitioner’s invention, for the purpose of remedying the evils occasioned by the defects of the present Anatomy Act (under the control of the Secretary-of-State for the Home Department.) That your Petitioner was informed by Mr. Warburton, in February 1837, that u the Chancellor of Exchequer considered the invention of great importance, and had in consequence desired him to make a report as to its completeness.” Mr. Warburton then informed your Petitioner, that the only terms upon which he would consent to make a report, were, that your Petitioner should put him confidentially in possession of the secret of the process. Your Petitioner did so im¬ part to Mr. Warburton the process; and was assured by him, if the invention was found to be complete, that the Government were bound in honour to remunerate your Petitioner.
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3