Lavinia Edwards | |
|---|---|
 Edwards after death | |
| Born | Dublin |
| Died | London |
| Other names | Eliza Edwards |
| Occupation | Actress |
Lavinia Edwards (died 1833, also known as Eliza Edwards or Miss Walstein) was a British actress. [1] She largely played in tragedies, and shortly into her career, became homeless. She died at age 24 of lung inflammation. When her body was dissected, she was determined to have been born male.
Little is known about Edwards' life, other than the fact that she lived for some time in Dublin, and later in London. [2] While she had at one time had success as an actress—playing primarily figures in tragedy [3] —she eventually became homeless. [4]
She lived with a woman named Maria, who claimed that she was Edwards' sister. [5] During this period of homelessness, Maria said Edwards was supported financially "by different gentlemen". [6] These included Thomas Smith (who offered her protection), [2] Thomas Grimstead (who supported Edwards, and received an ultimatum by his father to no longer talk to her, which he accepted), and a "Frederick" (who was a client of her prostitution). [7] She had, at times, passed for both a man and a woman, [8] though (according to one newspaper account) her being a woman was never doubted while she acted. [9]
Five minutes after informing Maria that she had trouble breathing, [10] Edwards reportedly said "Maria, I am dying—it has pleased God to call me", [11] and died of lung inflammation. [5]
In 1832, a year before Edwards died, the United Kingdom passed the Anatomy Act 1832, formulated by Jeremy Bentham, which granted doctors the right to inspect corpses which were not claimed. [5] The act was passed after a series of grave robberies, caused by a low supply of bodies. [5] Because nobody had claimed Edwards' body following her death, her corpse was taken away for dissection, where her sex was ascertained as male. [12] This information was previously unknown: Despite previous medical examinations, only the autopsy indicated her birth sex. [13]
Described as a "perfect man" by a newspaper account at the time, Edwards had no facial hair, an "effeminate appearance" according to one report, and long, feminine hair. [12] Her doctor said her voice was "cracked ... not unlike a female". [2] The coroner's jury was so surprised by the state of her body that they wondered whether she had been substituted with another. [14] The inspection of her corpse showed that her stomach was in perfect condition, dispelling any rumors that she had been poisoned prior to death. [15] Her liver, however, showed significant signs of impairment due to heavy alcohol consumption, and the poor condition of her lungs precipitated her death. [15]
Maria claimed that she was not aware that Edwards had been assigned male at birth when they lived together. [5] After the death of Edwards, Maria was suspected to be carrying her child. [16] Maria insisted her daughter was fathered by a man named George Treherne, but it was generally accepted—despite Maria being a prostitute, and thus having several other men that could have been the father—that the girl was Edwards'. [17]
Alfred Swaine Taylor, the main dissector of Edwards' body, later became one of the leading experts on medicine and the law and wrote extensively of her. [18] He first began writing about Edwards as an example of someone whose sex was concealed, but later wrote that because "the aperture of [her] anus was much wider and larger than natural" and her "male organs had been drawn up and secured", Edwards was addicted to sodomy. [19]
With her case becoming well-known to the public, similarities were drawn between Edwards and others whose gender expression did not align with their sex. For instance, one newspaper compared the case of Edwards to that of Mary Hamilton (also known as Charles or George) in 1833, who had assumed the identity of a man and married fourteen wives. Hamilton was publicly lashed and imprisoned for a term of six months. [20]
The history of anatomy extends from the earliest examinations of sacrificial victims to the sophisticated analyses of the body performed by modern anatomists and scientists. Written descriptions of human organs and parts can be traced back thousands of years to ancient Egyptian papyri, where attention to the body was necessitated by their highly elaborate burial practices.
The history of anatomy in the 19th century saw anatomists largely finalise and systematise the descriptive human anatomy of the previous century. The discipline also progressed to establish growing sources of knowledge in histology and developmental biology, not only of humans but also of animals.
A sex scandal is a public scandal involving allegations or information about possibly immoral sexual activities, often associated with the sexual affairs of film stars, politicians, famous athletes, or others in the public eye. Sex scandals receive attention if a prominent figure is involved, if there is a perception of hypocrisy, if a public figure's sexuality is non-normative, or if it involves non-consensual acts. A scandal may be based on reality, the product of false allegations, or a mixture of both. Whether the scandal is based in fact or not, it may lead to the celebrity disappearing from the public eye or to the resignation of prominent political figures.
The Visible Human Project is an effort to create a detailed data set of cross-sectional photographs of the human body, in order to facilitate anatomy visualization applications. It is used as a tool for the progression of medical findings, in which these findings link anatomy to its audiences. A male and a female cadaver were cut into thin slices, which were then photographed and digitized. The project is run by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) under the direction of Michael J. Ackerman. Planning began in 1986; the data set of the male was completed in November 1994 and the one of the female in November 1995. The project can be viewed today at the NLM in Bethesda, Maryland. There are currently efforts to repeat this project with higher resolution images but only with parts of the body instead of a cadaver.
The Burke and Hare murders were a series of sixteen killings committed over a period of about ten months in 1828 in Edinburgh, Scotland. They were undertaken by William Burke and William Hare, who sold the corpses to Robert Knox for dissection at his anatomy lectures.
A gynoid, or fembot, is a feminine humanoid robot. Gynoids appear widely in science fiction film and art. As more realistic humanoid robot design becomes technologically possible, they are also emerging in real-life robot design. Just like any other robot, the main parts of a gynoid include sensors, actuators and a control system. Sensors are responsible for detecting the changes in the environment while the actuators, also called effectors, are motors and other components responsible for the movement and control of the robot. The control system instructs the robot on what to do so as to achieve the desired results.
Dissection is the dismembering of the body of a deceased animal or plant to study its anatomical structure. Autopsy is used in pathology and forensic medicine to determine the cause of death in humans. Less extensive dissection of plants and smaller animals preserved in a formaldehyde solution is typically carried out or demonstrated in biology and natural science classes in middle school and high school, while extensive dissections of cadavers of adults and children, both fresh and preserved are carried out by medical students in medical schools as a part of the teaching in subjects such as anatomy, pathology and forensic medicine. Consequently, dissection is typically conducted in a morgue or in an anatomy lab.
Body snatching is the illicit removal of corpses from graves, morgues, and other burial sites. Body snatching is distinct from the act of grave robbery as grave robbing does not explicitly involve the removal of the corpse, but rather theft from the burial site itself. The term 'body snatching' most commonly refers to the removal and sale of corpses primarily for the purpose of dissection or anatomy lectures in medical schools. The term was coined primarily in regard to cases in the United Kingdom and United States throughout the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. However, there have been cases of body snatching in many countries, with the first recorded case dating back to 1319 in Bologna, Italy.
De Humani Corporis Fabrica Libri Septem is a set of books on human anatomy written by Andreas Vesalius (1514–1564) and published in 1543. It was a major advance in the history of anatomy over the long-dominant work of Galen, and presented itself as such.
The Anatomy Act 1832 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave free licence to doctors, teachers of anatomy and bona fide medical students to dissect donated bodies. It was enacted in response to public revulsion at the illegal trade in corpses.
Nemesis is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie (1890–1976) and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in November 1971 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. The UK edition retailed at £1.50 and the US edition at $6.95. It was the last Miss Marple novel the author wrote, although Sleeping Murder was the last Miss Marple novel to be published.
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp is a 1632 oil painting on canvas by Rembrandt housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, the Netherlands. It was originally created to be displayed by the Surgeons Guild in their meeting room. The painting is regarded as one of Rembrandt's early masterpieces.
In the context of gender, passing is when someone is perceived as a gender they identify as or are attempting to be seen as, rather than their sex assigned at birth. Historically, this was common among women who served in occupations where women were prohibited, such as in combat roles in the military. For transgender people, it is when the person is perceived as cisgender instead of the sex they were assigned at birth. The person may, for example, be a transgender man who is perceived as a cisgender man.
Mary Bateman was an English criminal and alleged witch, known as the Yorkshire Witch, who was tried and executed for murder during the early 19th century.
A cadaver or corpse is a dead human body. Cadavers are used by medical students, physicians and other scientists to study anatomy, identify disease sites, determine causes of death, and provide tissue to repair a defect in a living human being. Students in medical school study and dissect cadavers as a part of their education. Others who study cadavers include archaeologists and arts students. In addition, a cadaver may be used in the development and evaluation of surgical instruments.
Necrophilia, also known as necrophilism, necrolagnia, necrocoitus, necrochlesis, and thanatophilia, is sexual attraction or acts involving corpses. It is classified as a paraphilia by the World Health Organization (WHO) in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD) diagnostic manual, as well as by the American Psychiatric Association in its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).
Alfred Swaine Taylor was an English toxicologist and medical writer, who has been called the "father of British forensic medicine". He was also an early experimenter in photography.
Resurrectionists were body snatchers who were commonly employed by anatomists in the United Kingdom during the 18th and 19th centuries to exhume the bodies of the recently dead. Between 1506 and 1752 only a very few cadavers were available each year for anatomical research. The supply was increased when, in an attempt to intensify the deterrent effect of the death penalty, Parliament passed the Murder Act 1752. By allowing judges to substitute the public display of executed criminals with dissection, the new law significantly increased the number of bodies anatomists could legally access. This proved insufficient to meet the needs of the hospitals and teaching centres that opened during the 18th century. Corpses and their component parts became a commodity, but although the practice of disinterment was hated by the general public, bodies were not legally anyone's property. The resurrectionists therefore operated in a legal grey area.
The Pennsylvania Anatomy Act of 1883 is legislation of the State of Pennsylvania to facilitate medical education. This act allowed teachers and students to be able to dissect bodies without have to resort to buying from grave robbers or buying body parts. This act was written to prevent grave robbing, and to even out the availability of corpses.
The human body has been subject of much debate. How people are defined, and what defined them – be it their anatomy or their energy or both – depends on culture and time. Culture not only defines how sex is perceived but also how gender is defined. Today gender, sex, and identity continue to be of much debate and change based on what place and people are being examined.