All public officers of this state and their assistants and all officers and their deputies of every county, city, town or other municipality and of every prison, penitentiary, morgue and public hospital in this state having charge or control over any dead human body or bodies, not dead from any contagious or infectious disease and required to be buried at public expense, are required to notify the said Anatomical Board, or such person or persons as may from time to time be designated in writing by said board or its duly authorized officers, whenever any such body or bodies come into their possession, charge or control and shall, without fee or reward, deliver such body or bodies and suffer said board and its duly authorized agents, who may comply with the provisions of this article, to take and remove all such bodies to be used only within this state solely for the advancement of medical science. The State of Alabama Anatomical Board is expressly authorized to solicit dead bodies, for the purposes of scientific studies, from appropriate authorities within the jurisdiction of each county governing body.