Lifesavers and Body Snatchers: Medical care and the struggle for survival in the Great War, is Tim Cook\u0027s 14th book about Canada\u0027s wars.
That modern-day reverence makes all the more shocking the finds of Ottawa historian Tim Cook, whose new book tells how Canadian First World War doctors snatched brains and bones and other body parts from the dead and shipped them back to Canada, intending them for public display as museum pieces.Sign up to receive daily headline news from Ottawa Citizen, a division of Postmedia Network Inc.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“Sometimes when you’re in the archives you’re just taking notes or taking pictures with your phone. This time I was reading every single page because I couldn’t quite believe what I was reading: that Canadian doctors were part of this British, imperial program to harvest the body parts of slain soldiers. Canadian brains, bones, lungs and everything else.”
“In 1922, it’s almost like there was a sea change,” he said. “It’s like they suddenly realized that this didn’t align with how Canadians were thinking about the dead. There were thousands of memorials being built in every city, town and village. You can almost see in the records where they realize they have something that they shouldn’t have.”Article content
The First World War saw the development of pioneering medical techniques such as X-ray machines, blood transfusions, battlefield surgeries and even facial reconstruction for ghastly damage inflicted by bullets and shells.Article content