DISSECTION, in Anatomy, the cutting up a body with a view of examining the structure and use of the parts. Legendre observes that the dissection of a human body, even dead, was held as a sacrilege until the time of Francis I. And the same author assures us he has seen a consultation held by the divines of Salamanca, at the request of Charles V. in order to settle the question whether or not it were lawful in point of conscience to dissect a human body in order to learn the structure thereof.