in Anatomy, the cutting up a body with a view of examining the structure and use of the parts. See ANATOMY.

Le Gendre observes, that the dissection of a human body, even dead, was held a sacrilege till 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. to settle the question whether or no it were lawful in point of conscience to dissect a human body in order to learn the structure thereof.