GLR breakfast : the morbid side of medicine.

The "Doctor Death" exhibition at the Wellcome Institute (24 January-27 June 1997) Ken Arnold of the Wellcome Institute describes the medical and historical context of some of the exhibits. False teeth in the early days were made from real teeth and were called Waterloo teeth as they were usually taken from the mouths of people killed in battle. These would then be worn with wire contraptions. There was a great shortage of bodies to teach anatomy in medical schools. In Edinburgh two people, William Burke and William Hare, found lucrative trade in selling doctors the bodies of people they had murdered. They were caught and sentenced to public execution in 1827; Burke's body was ordered to be dissected and perpetually used for medical purpose.