Andrew Moir (anatomist)

Andrew Moir (1806–1844) was a 19th-century Scottish anatomist linked to the body-snatching scandal which swept Scotland in the late 18th and early 19th century.

Unlike his Edinburgh equivalent, Dr Robert Knox, Moir was said to have actively undertaken body-snatching himself.

This is highly unlikely, but the strange stories that surround Moir extend into the 21st century due to illogical thinking and bad reporting.

What appears to have happened is a mythology has built up, based on very little, and worsened by Moir's early death, offering him no chance of self-defence.

The estimates of the crowd at 20,000 are equally ludicrous,[6] as it would not be possible to place this number in the adjacent streets around the anatomy room.

The Anatomy Act 1832 regularised the whole situation, allowing parish councils to give the bodies of paupers for dissection, immediately stemming the demand for body-snatching.