‘Nicely boiled and scraped’: Medicine, radicalism, and the ‘useful body’ in a Lloyd Penny blood

This chapter addresses the questions, putting in touch Manuscript’s text with its context and connecting Edward Lloyd audience, Manuscripts, and the political debate around the Anatomy Act. It argues that while in general Manuscripts merged the sensationalism that was the trademark of Lloyd penny bloods with the radical ideals of self-improvement promoted in Lloyd’s publications, the resurrectionism-related episodes also engaged directly with the internal conflicts the Radicals experienced regarding dissection and anatomy. The physician frames Hannibal Jeffries account against the background of the ‘anatomy wars’, a peculiarly troublesome chapter in the history of the Anatomy Act. The ‘useful knowledge’ was a pillar of Utilitarian philosophy. Prominent Utilitarian figures such as Jeremy Bentham himself, Edwin Chadwick, and Thomas Southwood Smith often used it to argue in favour of the Anatomy Act. A famous example is Francis Place, a radical supporter of Utilitarianism and of the Anatomy Act.