Body snatching is the secret disinterment of
corpses from
graveyards or other burial sites. A common purpose of body snatching, especially in the 19th century, was to sell the corpses for
dissection or
anatomy lectures in
medical schools. Those who practiced body snatching were often called "resurrectionists" or "resurrection-men". A related act is
grave robbery, uncovering a
tomb or
crypt to steal
artifacts or personal effects rather than corpses.