Alexander Monro

Alexander Monro was a Scottish anatomist, lecturer and surgeon who lived and worked in Edinburgh in the late 18th century. He was the son of John Monro.

In 1729, Monro purchased an unusual hand from a local brewster selling ale, and proceeded to study it. As he picked it up, the hand scratched him, copying his DNA, and a clone was created: Alexander Monro II, whom Monro raised as his son. Fascinated, Alexander (later both Alexanders) continued to study this hand, and found that applying static electricity caused the hand to create an identical copy of itself, and that these hands could be sewn on to corpses to reanimate them. Monro thought he could use this idea to bring his dead father back to life. In 1759, the Tenth Doctor realised the hands were individual parts, or cells, of a much larger creature. He fixed them to combine with each other instead of attaching themselves to dead humans. As a result, the hands combined, along with Alexander II, to form an independent body. Angry at the loss of his son, Monro pursued the creature until a hand detached itself and began to choke him.

In 1771, Alexander Monro II reacquired the last remaining hand from Benjamin Franklin. (PROSE: The Many Hands)