Free Republic

Why were 10 dead bodies found in Benjamin Franklin’s basement? In 1998, a group called the Friends of Benjamin Franklin House began renovations on Franklin's London residence, No. 36 Craven Street, and discovered a nasty surprise: 1,200 pieces of bone from 10 bodies, six of which were children. And the bodies were buried in the basement around the time Franklin was living in the house. No, Franklin didn't engage in a murder spree in between penning Poor Richard's Almanack and flying kites in lightning storms. In fact, it's unlikely that the bodies were murder victims at all. The bones were...

Over the centuries, dissecting the human body has evolved from a criminal offense to a vehicle of mass entertainment to an initiation rite. In the Middle Ages, human dissections were forbidden. In 17th century Europe, medical school dissections were open to the public and often attracted unruly crowds cracking obscene jokes. By the 20th century, dissection had become the exclusive purview of scientists and a mandatory rite of passage for all doctors. The scandals reported this month with donated cadavers at the University of California, Los Angeles and Tulane University are simply the most recent in a field long beset...