Body snatching by medical students had been a part of Quebec's winters for more than fifty years when, in January and February of 1883, newspapers reported at least fifteen cases in the Montreal area. One of them led to the arrest and trial of student Joseph Fontaine. Fellow students from Montreal medical schools, who had come to support him at the police court, clashed with the officers who tried to expel them from the courtroom. In the wake of this demonstration, the Quebec medical community called for legislative reform to ensure that public institutions would comply with the provisions of the Quebec Anatomy Act regarding the transfer of unclaimed bodies to medical schools. This article shows how this reform of the Quebec Anatomy Act in 1883 was a turning point after which the dissection of unclaimed bodies took hold firmly in the training of medical students in Quebec. It argues that the adoption of [End Page 525] this law was inextricably tied to the history of body snatching by medical students, and that putting an end to this practice enhanced the professional status of medical practitioners at the end of the nineteenth century.
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