Mortsafes were contraptions designed to protect graves from disturbance. Resurrectionists had supplied the schools of anatomy in Scotland since the early 18th century. This was due to the necessity for medical students to learn anatomy by attending dissections of human subjects, which was frustrated by the very limited allowance of dead bodies – for example the corpses of executed criminals – granted by the government, which controlled the supply.

An open water swimmer surfaces as she enjoys a socially-distanced dawn swim after breaking the ice on the surface of a lake near Scunthorpe, northern England, January 9, 2021. Faced by a sharp rise in coronavirus infections, driven by the new strain, England entered a strict lockdown on January 5, 2021, with schools and non-essential shops closed for at least six weeks after previous measures failed to halt the steep rise in cases. (Photo by Lindsey Parnaby/AFP Photo)

A cadet from the Interior Ministry with the word Fidel painted on her face attends a rally honoring the late Cuban leader at the Revolution Plaza in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, November 29, 2016. Schools and government offices were closed Tuesday for a second day of homage to Fidel Castro, with the day ending in a rally on the wide plaza where the Cuban leader delivered fiery speeches to mammoth crowds in the years after he seized power.Fidel Castro passed away Friday Nov. 25. He was 90. (Photo by Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo)

An Orangutan named “Pacquiao” and zoo owner Manny Tangco, wearing Santa costumes, embrace in front of Brown Philippine Deer while giving school children a tour ahead of the next week's Christmas celebration Thursday, December 18, 2014 in suburban Malabon city, north of Manila, Philippines. The yearly treat is aimed at encouraging residents to be sensitive to the feelings of animals especially when exploding firecrackers for the raucous celebration. (Photo by Bullit Marquez/AP Photo)

Rescue workers try to pull out a piece of an exploded Grad missile outside an apartment building in Vostochniy district of Mariupol, Eastern Ukraine, Sunday, January 25, 2015. Indiscriminate rocket fire slammed into a market, schools, homes and shops Saturday in Ukraine's southeastern city of Mariupol, killing at least 30 people, authorities said. The Ukrainian president called the blitz a terrorist attack and NATO and the U.S. demanded that Russia stop supporting the rebels. (Photo by Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo)

In this September 4, 1963, file photo, a police officer carries off a demonstrator holding a Confederate flag after a group of demonstrators protested enrollment of two African-Americans at Ramsay High School in Birmingham, Ala. The Confederate battle flag has been removed from South Carolina's Statehouse grounds, in the wake of the massacre of nine African-Americans, including a state senator, at an historic black church in Charleston in June 2015. (Photo by AP Photo)

A pile of destroyed cars of teachers sits outside Briarwood elementary school in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma May 22, 2013. Rescue workers with sniffer dogs picked through the ruins on Wednesday to ensure no survivors remained buried after a deadly tornado left thousands homeless and trying to salvage what was left of their belongings. Curvature of horizon in the photo is due to an ultra-wide angle lens. (Photo by Rick Wilking/Reuters)

Revelers dance at a Jacarezinho samba school practice session ahead of Carnival celebrations on February 16, 2014 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Jacarezinho “favela” was previously controlled by drug traffickers and is now occupied by the city's Police Pacification Unit (UPP). Carnival officially begins February 28, but pre-Carnival celebrations are already underway. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)