_287 Coffin guard "This is a coffin guard or mort safe and is designed to prevent body snatchers stealing the corpse of someone who has recently died. \r\n<\/br\/>\r\nIn the early 18th century medical schools in Scotland started to use dissection methods to teach the medical sciences. They general used executed criminals, but found demand out stripped supply. This gave rise to a trade in body snatching, stealing bodies from fresh graves and selling them to anatomists. \r\n<br\/>\r\nThe practice shocked society, but no effective deterrent was found until around 1816 when the iron coffin guard was invented. It was placed around and over the coffin. This one is missing its lid. It would protect the body until it had decayed suitably to make body snatching undesirable to the thieves. \r\n<br\/>\r\nThese were expensive to make, so only the rich could afford them. Sometimes churches would buy them and hire them out. This guard was from the old Glen Nevis cemetery in Fort William. It is one of the museum\u2019s most sinister objects." eulac3d Highlands Physical Object image/jpeg Highlands IMAGE Victorian "This is a coffin guard or mort safe and is designed to prevent body snatchers stealing the corpse of someone who has recently died. \r\n<\/br\/>\r\nIn the early 18th century medical schools in Scotland started to use dissection methods to teach the medical sciences. They general used executed criminals, but found demand out stripped supply. This gave rise to a trade in body snatching, stealing bodies from fresh graves and selling them to anatomists. \r\n<br\/>\r\nThe practice shocked society, but no effective deterrent was found until around 1816 when the iron coffin guard was invented. It was placed around and over the coffin. This one is missing its lid. It would protect the body until it had decayed suitably to make body snatching undesirable to the thieves. \r\n<br\/>\r\nThese were expensive to make, so only the rich could afford them. Sometimes churches would buy them and hire them out. This guard was from the old Glen Nevis cemetery in Fort William. It is one of the museum\u2019s most sinister objects." image/jpeg Still Image "" image/jpeg Still Image "Blog looking at the history of the mort safe" Text "Blog looking at the history of the mort safe" Text 56.8097895 -5.079578