Reassessing the pauper burial: the disposal of corpses in nineteenth-century Brussels

Abstract

In this article I examine the changing disposal of pauper corpses in the nineteenthcentury hospitals of Brussels. I argue that the end of the century witnessed a growing focus on the individuality of the pauper corpse. Research into hospital records has revealed the significance of the ideological struggles between Catholics, liberals and socialists from the 1860s onwards, as a result of which the indifferent attitude of hospital administrators regarding dead patients and relatives was increasingly contested. Acts and complaints by the local authorities, mutualist burial societies and relatives brought about improvements of the material conditions of the pauper burial. My analysis of this debate shows that the ideological conflicts regarding Catholic and civil burials, as well as the introduction of new burial standards within hospitals, led to a greater emphasis on the burial desires of the dead. Yet, I argue that this attention towards the individual pauper corpse was only deemed necessary if close family members or burial societies stood up for the fulfilment of the dying wishes of the dead. Poor hospital patients without such social relationships could not prevent an anonymous anatomy burial.

Medicine and religion

“…As a result, not only did the (already existing) body shortage for dissections increase in the Brussels hospitals, but funeral rooms were also constructed, in addition to the existing chapels in hospitals, as spaces where non-Catholic funeral rites could be held. 46 The relationship between devotion and medical expertise also worked the other way around and medical experts were summoned to make some religious activities run more smoothly. Devotional practices like the yearly Lourdes pilgrimage involved sick and invalid faithful and often required medical support.…”