It is of interest to note that very soon after the Charter had been granted, Thomas Vicary approached the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London to make sure that the Barber-Surgeons should receive the bodies of the felons for anatomical study. It would seem that the Court of Aldermen were not sure how they should direct their Sheriffs, for the Minutes of the Court for 14 December 1540 state: ... Item, Master Laxton & Master Bowes, Shreves of this Citye, prayed the Advyse of this howse for & concernying the Delyuerye ouer of one of the dedde bodyes of the Felons of late condempned to dethe within this Citye, And requyred of the seyd Master Shreves by Master Vycary & other the surgeons of this Citye for Annotamye, Accordyng to the fourme of an Acte of parlyament thereof lately made. And Agreyd that the same Acte be first seen & then Master Shreves to work ther after.[39] With human dissection material assured, the United Company proceeded to appoint a Reader of Anatomy, the first perhaps being Thomas Vicary, and although the intervening records of the company are not complete, it is known that in 1546 Dr. John Caius, lately returned from Padua, where he had been acquainted with and even lived for a time with the celebrated anatomist Andreas Vesalius, was appointed and held the position of Reader of Anatomy for the next seventeen years. In his brief autobiography Caius refers to these dissections which he performed ‘for almost twenty years’, and adds, ‘By the wish of the most illustrious prince Henry VIII, King of England, I performed them in London before the surgeons; among the physicians at that time there was no dissection.’[40] It may be assumed, however, that by ‘physicians’ Caius was referring to those of London rather than to those of the universities. Nevertheless, his remark helps to explain the lack of anatomical works which might have competed with those of the Continent. The physicians, although better trained in languages than the surgeons and, we may assume, literary exposition, were as yet not interested in the subject of anatomy.