Editing Body snatching (section)

===Public outcry===
On February 21, 1788, the body of a woman was taken from the graveyard of New York City's Trinity Church.<ref name=trafficdead/> A hundred-dollar reward was offered by the rector of the church for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.  In the ''Daily Advertiser'', many editorial letters were written about the incident: one such writer named Humanio warned that "lives may be forfeit&nbsp;... should [the body snatchers] persist."<ref name=trafficdead/> There was cause for concern: body snatching was perceived to be "a daily occurrence."<ref name=Prothero>{{cite book |author=Prothero, Stephen R.
|title=Purified by fire: a history of cremation in America 
|publisher=University of California Press 
|location=Berkeley |year=2001 |isbn=0-520-23688-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XqVOH9uzDDwC&pg=PA67}}</ref>

A famous case of body snatching in the United States was the [[1788 Doctors' Riot|Doctors' Riot]] of 1788.<ref name="whiteambd">{{cite book |author=Martin, Charles C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K4RUy9Hs6lMC&pg=PA196 |title=The white African American body: a cultural and literary exploration |publisher=Rutgers University Press |year=2002 |isbn=0-8135-3032-6 |location=New Brunswick, N.J}}</ref> On April 13, a group of boys playing near the dissection room window of [[Weill Cornell Medical Center|City Hospital]] peered in. Accounts vary, but one of the boys saw what he thought were his mother's remains or that one of the students shook a dismembered arm at the boys.  The boy, whose mother had recently died, told his father of the occurrence; the father, a mason, led a group of laborers in an attack on the hospital, known as In order to control the destruction of private property, the authorities participated in searches of local physicians' houses for medical students, professors, and stolen corpses. The mob was satisfied. Later, the mob reassembled to attack the jail where some of the medical students were being held for their safety. The militia was called, but few showed; this was perhaps due to the militia sharing the public's outrage. One small troop was harassed and quickly withdrew. Several prominent citizens–including Governor George Clinton; General Baron von Steuben, and John Jay–participated in the ranks of the militia protecting the doctors at the jail. Three rioters were killed when the embattled militia opened fire on the mob, and when militia members from the countryside joined the defense, the mob threat quickly dissipated.<ref name="whiteambd" />

To assuage the outraged public, legislation was enacted to thwart the activities of the body snatchers; eventually, anatomy acts, such as the Massachusetts Anatomy Act of 1831, allowed for the legalization of anatomy studies.<ref name="Leypoldt">{{cite book
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1rwqAAAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA69 |title= American Social Sciences Association – "Journal of Social Sciences: Containing the Transactions of the American Association"|publisher= Leypoldt & Holt|year= 1879}}</ref>

Prior to these measures allowing for more subjects, many tactics were employed to protect the bodies of relatives. Police were engaged to watch the burying grounds but were often bribed or made drunk. Spring guns were set in the coffins, and poorer families would leave items like a stone or a blade of grass or a shell to show whether the grave was tampered with or not.<ref name=Keen/> In his collection of Boston police force details, Edward Savage made notes of a reward offer on April 13, 1814: "The selectmen offer $100 reward for arrest of grave-robbers at South Burying-Ground".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/stream/policerecordsrecr00sava/policerecordsrecr00sava_djvu.txt |title=Savage, Edward H. 'Police Records and Recollections, or Boston by Daylight and Gaslight: For Two Hundred and Forty Years'|publisher= John P. Dale & Co.|year= 1873}}</ref> Iron fences were constructed around many burying grounds as a deterrent to body snatchers. "Burglar proof grave vaults made of steel" were sold with the promise that loved ones' remains would not be one of the 40,000 bodies "mutilated every year on dissecting tables in medical colleges in the United States."<ref name=Prothero/> The medical appropriation of bodies aroused much popular resentment. Between 1765 and 1884, there were at least 25 documented crowd actions against American medical schools.<ref name=trafficdead/>