Death in the dissecting room. 19th-century caricature depicting a skeleton as Death (left) in a dissecting room. A cadaver is on the dissecting table at right, with students in the background studying anatomy. Another corpse is on the floor, while a third is being brought in through the door in a sack. This watercolour, by British caricaturist Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), was published in 'The English Dance of Death' (1815-16) by British writer William Combe (1742-1823).