Resurrection men and the FEF25-75

Abstract

The movement of medicine toward a scientific foundation in the late 18th and early 19th centuries had the unexpected effect of creating a cottage industry called “body snatching.” Corpses were disinterred from graveyards, sold to medical schools and private institutions, and recycled for anatomic dissection.1 This process was dubbed “resurrectionism,” and the practitioners were called “resurrection men” because they caused the dead to rise again. In a sense, Simon et al2 in the current issue of the Journal are also “resurrection men” who are giving a new purpose to a lung function test long considered dead and buried.