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.

A woman made up as a skull participates in Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico City, Thursday, October 27, 2016. The holiday honors the dead as friends and families gather in cemeteries to decorate their loved ones' graves and hold vigil through the night on Nov. 1 and 2. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)

A military instructor teaches a schoolboy shooting with Kalashnikov rifles, during a training session at a military unit of the National Guard of Ukraine in western Ukrainian city of Lviv on February 15, 2022. (Photo by Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP Photo)

Participants from a North Korea military band perform during the Spasskaya Tower international military music festival in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Friday, August 23, 2019. (Photo by Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

A woman takes a selfie in front a damaged Turkish military APC that was attacked by protesters near the Turkish military headquarters in Ankara, Turkey, Saturday, July 16, 2016. (Photo by Hussein Malla/AP Photo)

Students of the General Yermolov Cadet School take part in combined military training with members of a local youth military patriotic club at a boot camp of the Russkiye Vityazi (Russian Knights) military patriotic club in the village of Sengileyevskoye outside Stavropol, Russia February 8, 2017. (Photo by Eduard Korniyenko/Reuters)

A military cadet gets help from a colleague to adjust her hair before taking part the military parade in Bucharest, Romania, Saturday, December 1, 2018, as thousands turned out Saturday to celebrate 100-years since Romania became a modern-day state, amid concerns about rule of law and the state of democracy. Crowds braved temperatures of minus 5 Celsius (23 Fahrenheit) to watch the military parade of troops, tanks and military vehicles. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)

A female member of Romania's military adjusts her hat before taking part in the national day military parade in Bucharest, Romania, Friday, December 1, 2017. Thousands of Romanian troops staged a military parade to celebrate Romania's national day, but key politicians didn't attend, signaling tensions between the president and the ruling left-wing coalition over plans to revamp the justice system. (Photo by Vadim Ghirda/AP Photo)