SOME HUMBLE WORKERS IN THE CAUSE OF ANATOMY A HUNDRED YEARS AGO* By W. B. HOWELL, M.D.

MONTREAL, CANADA “Facilis iactura scpulcri. ” justifiable to dissect a dead body. How N the year 1832 there came into force in difficult it was in some parts of Europe to England one of the most important laws obtain bodies for dissection is shown by ever passed in connection with medical the fact that Cortesius, professor of education. It is generally known as the anatomy at Bologna, was able to obtain Anatomy Act and had to do with the only two bodies in twenty-four years. regulation of the supply of subjects for Later, however, Pope Benedict xiv issued dissection. a decree to the effect that the bodies of all Such laws as were in existence before this patients dying in the Bologna hospitals were entirely inadequate. In the reign of should be dissected. At first there was great Henry vm the Company of Barbers and opposition, but when this died out, Bologna Surgeons (note the order of precedence in became a great center for the teaching the names) had been incorporated. The act of anatomy. of incorporation provided that the members In Edinburgh, as far back as 1694 the of the company and their successors “yearly anatomists were allowed to have “those for ever, after their said discretions, at bodies that dye in the correction house,” their free liberty and pleasure, shall and may and later “the bodies of fondlings who have and take without contradiction, four dye betwixt the tymc that they are weaned persons condemned, adjudged and put to and their being put to schools and trades,” death for a felony, by the due order of the also “the dead bodies of such as are stiflct King’s laws of this realm, for anatomists in the birth, which are exposed and have ... to make incision of the same bodies none to own them” and the “dead bodies . . . for their further and better knowl- of such as are felo da se and have none to edge and instruction, insight, learning and owne them.” experience in the said science or Faculty One result of legislation which turned over of Surgery, etc.” the bodies of executed criminals to the In 1565, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, anatomists was to make the idea of dissec- a similar privilege was extended to the tion very repugnant to the mass of the College of Physicians and in 1663 to the people. It was looked upon as the culminat- Royal Society, each of which corporations ing indignity inflicted upon the victim of was to have four bodies annually. In 1723 an a disgraceful death. Nor did it add to the unsuccessful attempt was made to induce dignity of the medical profession that cer- the House of Commons to pass a bill pro- tain of its members followed the hangman viding that a larger number of bodies from and completed the punishment ordained the gallows should go to the anatomists. by law. In 1752, however, the former acts were Steadily growing interest in anatomy amended so as to include the bodies of all during the eighteenth century brought executed murderers. It is interesting to private schools into existence. At first note that in the sixteenth century the the classes met at the residences of the Emperor Charles v ordered a consultation teachers, but as the number of students to be held by the leading divines of Sala- became greater, houses were rented. Com- manca to determine whether it was morally petition between schools became so keen *Read at a meeting of the Montreal Medico- that to supply the steadily increasing Chirurgical Society, May 15, 1925. demand for subjects there came into exist- encc a set of men, recruited chiefly from then replaced and the grave made to the criminal classes, who made it their appear as much as possible as if it had not business to steal bodies for the anatomists. been disturbed. Sometimes relatives put They were usually called “resurrectionists” shells and other small objects upon the or “body-snatchers,” and sometimes in a grave so as to be able to detect desecration, spirit of levity “resurgam homos,” “sack- by noticing their removal. The position of cm-up gentlemen,” or according to Samuel such objects was carefully noted before Warren, “grabs.” W hen Sir Astley Cooper the grave was opened and they were gave evidence before a committee of the replaced afterwards. Another source of House of Commons engaged in drafting the material for the resurrectionist was the Anatomy Act he described them as “belong- small undertaker’s establishment to which ing to the lowest dregs of degradation.” many of the bodies of the poor were taken Joshua Brookes called them “the most to await burial. Many burial services must iniquitous set of villains that ever lived.” have been held over coffins which contained These gentlemen spoke with feeling, we nothing more than tan bark or brick-bats may be sure, because they both had had put there to make up for the weight of a dealings with them over many years and corpse which had already found its way to had suffered much at their hands. The the dissecting room. members of the parliamentary committee Some of the leaders among the resurrec- had an opportunity to judge for themselves tionists amassed quite respectable fortunes. for some of the resurrectionists gave evidence One of the best known in London about 1820 before them. was a man named Murphy who obtained The body snatchers, who worked in ascendancy over his followers by lending gangs, obtained access to the cemeteries them money and thus acquiring the power cither by bribing the caretakers or by making to throw them into a debtor’s prison if they them too drunk to interfere. They dug down became refractory. He was very clever in quickly to the head of the coffin, through playing off one school against another in earth which, having been recently dis- order to keep up prices and forced the turbed, was still loose and easy to remove. proprietor of one of them, a man who had The lid of the coffin, having been forced incurred his displeasure, to pay twenty up by means of a specially devised lever, guineas for a subject. If a customer, exasper- was broken by the weight of the earth ated by his insolence and high prices, above it and the body was then pulled out. opened dealings with another resurrection- Each church had its own graveyard and as ist, Murphy, having found where his rival these were disgracefully overcrowded, espe- obtained bodies would have a grave opened cially in the poor parts of London, the there and a body left partially exposed, or graves were usually very shallow. The perhaps on the ground. This would lead to body snatcher of fiction, as we see him in an investigation, other graves would be Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” Stevenson’s found to have been disturbed, and with the “The Body Snatcher,” and Samuel War- secret help of Murphy, relatives would be ren’s “Grave Doings,” preferred to bring enabled to trace the bodies of the departed the whole coffin up and then put it back, and a general state of unpleasantness thereby giving themselves a great deal of would ensue. unnecessary trouble. The body was stripped Joshua Brookes in Great Marlborough of its grave clothes and put in a sack, great Street, London, had the misfortune at one care being taken not to remove anything time to arouse the anger of some body but the body itself, because there being snatchers, and was punished by their plac- no property in a dead body, its removal ing, early one winter evening, two naked did not constitute theft. The earth was and decomposing bodies on the pavement near his establishment. Two young ladies, having declined to recognize his course of hurriedly walking along the ill-lighted street, lectures any longer, brought about the stumbled over them, and by their agitated ruin of his school, and he died penniless in cries collected a crowd which would have London in 1833. vented its fury on the neighbouring ana- There was a good deal of shipping of tomy school if the police had not arrived in bodies from one part of the United Kingdom time to protect it. Brookes, who lived over to another according to the fluctuations his school, was one night aroused from his of supply and demand. For several years in sleep to interview a disreputable looking Dublin, previous to 1826, the Anatomy stranger who had brought him a body in a School of the Royal College of Surgeons of sack. When the purchase had been com- Ireland was used, with the connivance of pleted and his visitor had gone, being in the college servants, as a sort of warehouse a hurry to go back to bed, he kicked for the storing of bodies for export. Bodies the sack with its contents down the stairs for shipment were packed in crates, packing leading to the dissecting room and turned cases or barrels according to the customary away. Before he had taken more than a method of shipping goods manufactured few steps he heard sounds which arrested at the town from which the bodies were his attention, and returning, found the shipped. The Liverpool Mercury of October sack lying empty on the floor and a man 13, 1826, informed its readers that thirty- standing by it. The intruder explained with three human bodies had been found in a good deal of apprehension, for Brookes casks on a wharf where they were awaiting was a large and powerfully built man, that shipment from Liverpool to Edinburgh. he had been drunk and that his friends Not only were the bodies stolen for the had done him up in a sack and brought purpose of obtaining subjects for the study him there as a joke. The interval between of anatomy, but also to enrich museum his hurried explanation and the moment collections. For instance, the doctors of when he shot out into the street seems to one of the Edinburgh hospitals wished to have been short and breathless. No doubt get the head of a child who had died under as he limped home he made a firm resolution their care from hydrocephalus, but the that on future occasions, when an anatomy relatives refused their consent. The body school was to be robbed, he would choose was buried in the cemetery of a small one which was kept by somebody not village near the Firth of Forth and the quite so large and savage as Mr. Brookes, or grave carefully guarded by professional else arrange for one of his confederates to watchers, at first both by day and night, impersonate the corpse. but later at night only. At length one Brookes, who was a very eccentric char- afternoon two well-dressed gentlemen drove acter, was remarkable chiefly for the excel- up to the village inn in a dogcart. They lence of his teaching, the quantity of snuff left the horse to be looked after and told he consumed and the filthiness of his person. the landlord that if in their absence a An acquaintance wrote of him: “ In his ordin- servant in livery came with a package he ary appearance I really know of no dirty was to be told to put it in the dogcart. The thing with which he could compare; all and servant came in due course, deposited the every part of him was dirt, and his house parcel and left. Shortly afterwards the two was no cleaner than his person; yet he gentlemen reappeared and drove off but sometimes came out as a pleasant gentle- not before a sharp stable boy had drawn manly person in black with a powdered the landlord’s attention to the strong resem- head, clcanish hands, yet snuffy withal, blance between one of the gentlemen and the and not lacking in good manners and infor- servant in livery, and had been snubbed mation.” The College of Surgeons in 1824, for his officiousness. That evening when the watchers arrived at the burial ground they Friday 6th. Removed one from Bartholomew found the grave had been robbed. The to Carpue.3 At night went out and got 8. culprits, who were never found, are believed Dan’l at home all night. 6 Back St. Lukes and to have been a young man named Liston 2 Big Gates; Went 5 Bartholomew. 1 Frampton 3 St. Thomas’s, 3 Wilson. who afterwards became famous as a sur- Tuesday 10th. Intoxsicated all day; at night geon, and Crouch, a notorious London went out and got 5 Bunhill Row. Jack almost resurrectionist. Crouch, who had been well buried. [How little unmanly repining there known as a prize-fighter in his early days, would have been if “Jack” had been completely later in life gave up stealing bodies and took buried! With what zest his body would have to dealing in human teeth. He obtained a been offered to the anatomists!] license to follow the army in the Peninsular Friday 27th. Went to look-out, came home, as a sutler and used to go about at night met Ben and Dan’l. at 5 o’clock, went to after an action pulling the teeth of the Harps, got 8 large and took it to Jack’s house, killed and helping himself to any valuables Jack, Bill and Tom not with us, getting drunk. which he could find on their persons. No Saturday 22nd. Went to look-out me and doubt he was not too particular to make Hollis, Bill staid in the Boro, got paid £4.4 for sure that life was extinct before he took the above a very queer one received but two guineas for the one at Barth1. Would not do for the teeth. In the course of time he earned lecture. Settl’d each man’s share, £ 1.16.6. At enough money to set up as a hotel keeper night the party went to Weigate, the thing4 bad. in Margate, where at first he was prosperous 1812. Dec. 5. Sat. Remained at Barth1 packing enough, but when it became known who up for Edinboro, sent 12 to the wharf for the he was and how he had earned his living above place, at home all night. previously, his business went to ruin and It is believed that the diary was written finally he died miserably poor in London. by a man named Naples who had been There was at that time no manufacturing in the Royal Navy and was in H.M.S. of artificial teeth and how handsomely dentists paid for sets of teeth obtained from Excellent at the battle off Cape Vincent. human skulls may be realized from the Sooner or later the caretakers of grave- fact that on one occasion Murphy, having yards who had accepted bribes were found obtained access to a vault where there out and discharged. They naturally gravi- was a number of dead bodies, secured in tated to their confederates and became a single night enough teeth to bring him resurrectionists. in £60. It was not only by robbing graves that There is at the present day in the Museum bodies were obtained. On one occasion a of the Royal College of Surgeons of England well-known resurrectionist having the good an interesting manuscript written by a fortune to be near a man who fell dead in the street explained to the bystanders, resurrectionist. The following are some with every sign of sorrow, that it was a extracts from a copy of it: dear relation and as quickly as he could 1811. Nov. 30th. At night went out and got obtained a cart and whisked the body off 3. Bunhill Row, sold to Mr. Cline, St. Thomas’s to the nearest anatomy school. Such a Hospital. piece of good luck must have seemed like Tuesday, 3 Dec. Went to look-out1 and 3 J. C. Carpue who had an anatomy school in brought the shovils from Bartholomew, met Soho. He was mentioned in Tom Hood’s poem about early in the evening at Mr. Vickers2 did not go the resurrectionists. On one occasion at the request out that night, Butler and me came home of some artist friends he obtained a body warm from intoxsicated. the gallows, nailed it on a cross which he then erected. When rigor mortis had developed the artists 1 Watched for funerals. took a cast of the body. 2 Probably the landlord of a public house. 4 The body. the direct intervention of Providence in The Resurrectionists were always on the his behalf. “qui vive” for dying persons without friends, A man named Clarke managed by his and to know all about their history, and if sympathetic bearing to insinuate himself possible to personify the individual of whom the deceased had spoken in his or her last moments. into a house where a four year old child Marvellous were the expedients resorted to by had died and after carefully noting the these false claimants of the unprotected dead, position of the coffin near a front window, and equally marvellous was their success, con- went out and brought back a glass of some- sidering that all the various personifications thing which had the effect of putting the of character rested with so small a group as woman who was watching the body into three or four men, one of whom had to profess a sound sleep. He then angled through the direct kinsmanship with the deceased. A rascal window for the body with a stick and of the name of Andrew Lees was the leading succeeded in getting it, but unfortunately spirit in the funereal line. He was a tall gaunt for him, a policeman who knew his reputa- fellow, with a long pale face, the muscles of tion arrested him before he had gone very which were exceedingly pliable to any emo- far and he was sent to gaol for six months. tional need—tragedy, comedy, or farce. Gro- tesque in look and gesture, and wearing a A favorite trick was to sell a body to cast-off suit of black, that had not been made one of the schools and then inform the police for his “shrunk shanks” the students named of its presence there. Confederates, imper- him “Merry Andrew” and over his cups he sonating the relatives of the deceased, would could maintain the fool’s part well. When accompany the police during a raid and assuming the character of mourner his appear- after getting possession of the body would ance was dismal enough, his pale face, with sell it to another anatomist. dropped jaw, set off by the habilements of grief Many thoughtful people during the early and odd manner, far surpassing any theatrical part of the nineteenth century realized “get-up.” His approach to the house of death the necessity of providing material for the was that of a stranger from the country timidly study of anatomy and bequeathed their enquiring for a certain house, on entering which, bodies to the anatomists. In a single fort- his bleared eyes, that would have made the night, a document was signed by ninety- fortune of a London “mute,” became suffused with tears. After dwelling on the virtues of his eight people, including physicians, medical “dear relation” he would at length intimate students, lawyers and clergymen, who that he wished to convey the “remains” to agreed to make this provision in their the family burial place in the country; that he wills. Jeremy Bentham, the celebrated and some friends would return with a cart and jurist, who directed that his body should coffin towards evening. His “friends” all in the be disposed of in this way, was dissected same line were first “Spune” as he was called, and his skeleton put in the Museum of a little man who shaved very cleanly and University College where it has remained looked as demure and resigned as a Methodist to this day. It was the irony of fate that he preacher, so saintly, and barring his greasy should have died after the passing of the clothes, of truly “sweet savour”; secondly, Anatomy Act. No less a personage than Mowatt, who got the name of Moudiewarp the Duke of Sussex, uncle of Queen Victoria, (moldewarp) from his successful imitation of the mole in burrowing the earth; thirdly, the wished his body to be used after his death mock minister, a clergyman who was personified for the benefit of medical) science. His by a deep-dyed vagabond who called himself wishes, however, were not carried out for Howard, in the hope of hiding his iniquity he was buried with great pomp at Kensal under a noble English name. Dressed in a black Green Cemetery long after the Anatomy suit, too seedy for even a curate by the fell- Act came into force. sides of Cumberland, and with a white choker, The following description is copied from the “praying Howard” officiated a la mode, Lonsdale’s “Life of Robert Knox”: improving the occasion by calling upon those around the bier to reflect on the uncertainty of gradually increasing indignation was life and the need of spiritual regeneration, for brought to a focus when a number of man was but a vain shadow. The group of nuns and their pupils died during a typhoid mourners having played their parts, the funeral epidemic in winter and their bodies were cortege moved towards the suburbs. As soon as night and circumstances favored the change stolen. Some of bodies were those of young of scene, the black curtain was raised; the girls from the United States whose relatives, dramatis personae mounted the cart and when they came to claim them and found returned to Edinburgh, and lost no time in they had disappeared, raised a hue and transferring the body to the anatomical rooms. cry. The robbers, alarmed by the storm With cash in hand, the quaternion had a night they had caused and afraid to take the of it, and Merrylees, now seen in his character bodies to the dissecting rooms, kept them of the laughing Mercutio, made the welkin ring hidden in the snow until rewards were till he had put each of his “friends” below offered for their return, when they had the table dead drunk. the satisfaction of receiving compensation In Canada the day of the body snatcher for their time and trouble. After this the persisted much later than in England law was amended and body snatching in because the Anatomy Act in the Province the Province of Quebec was stopped. of Quebec entailed no penalties and there- The gradual development in England fore its provisions were not carried out. and Scotland of a strong feeling of indigna- The writer has had the privilege of reading tion at the frequency with which graves an article on this subject written by Dr. were desecrated led to the exercise of F. J. Shepherd, formerly professor of anat- much greater care in the hiring of honest omy at McGill University, and published and vigilant guards. Volunteer patrols vis- among some other papers for private circu- ited the burial places at night and if the lation. When Dr. Shepherd first began to resurrectionists were caught they were teach anatomy at McGill in the early roughly handled. There are still in some seventies he had to make use of subjects Edinburgh burying-grounds especially con- obtained by surreptitious means. The bodies structed graves called “mortsafes” covered were stolen from graveyards by medical over with iron work to prevent their being students, chiefly French-Canadians, who robbed. Watch towers provided with bells paid their way through college partly, or to herald the advent of the “minions of wholly, by the money they earned in this the moon” can be seen to this day in some way. Many bodies were taken from the of the graveyards in the north of Scotland. Roman Catholic cemetery on Mount Royal One of the best preserved examples is in and brought down the Cote des Neiges the small village of Kincardine O’Neil in Hill on toboggans. Dr. Shepherd in his Aberdeenshire. The result of these and of early days was more than once fined for other measures was not to put an end to having, in the dissecting room, bodies the scandal, but merely to raise the price. which had been obtained in this way. On Sir Astley Cooper said before the parlia- one occasion a French student found the mentary committee to which allusion has body of his uncle in the dissecting room and been made, that he could obtain the body said to Dr. Shephered: “What for you of any one who had died in England be he got mine oncle here?” After some conversa- ever so prominent; the only difficulty would tion he resigned his claim with the remark, be the price. “S’pose mine oncle come, s’pose he stay.” Since so much money could be obtained Another student found his grandmother for dead bodies and the difficulties and on a dissecting room table. Many dead dangers of stealing them were so great, it houses in which the bodies were kept for occurred to certain progressive minds that burial in the spring' were robbed. The the simplest and least troublesome way to obtain a body was by murder. It was the On April 9, 1828, they committed the detection of these murders, and the intense first of the murders for which Burke and public excitement resulting from the trial M’Dougal were tried. The body of the of the culprits which awakened parliament victim, a disreputable girl of eighteen to the necessity of passing the Anatomy Act. years of age, who had been remarkable for The idea of killing people in order to beauty, was sold to Knox for £10 within sell their bodies was not new in the nine- four hours after her death. Its beauty, which teenth century. In 1752 in Scotland, two excited a great deal of comment among nurses, Helen Torrance and Jean Waldie, the students, induced Knox to bring in were hanged for murdering a boy and selling some artists who made drawings of it. his body to some medical students for two Some of his assistants who recognized the shillings and ten pence, plus the “price of a body and asked Burke how he came by dram.” What first directed the attention it were told that she had killed herself of the public to the necessity for legislation with drink and that they had bought the was the famous case of Burke and Hare in body from her relatives. Apparently nothing Edinburgh. more was said about the matter at the Burke lived with his mistress, Helen time. In June, Burke and Hare committed M’Dougal, at a tramps’ boarding house a particularly atrocious murder; they kept by a couple named Hare, between smothered an old Irishwoman who had whom no marriage ceremony had been come to Edinburgh to find some friends, performed, though by the law of Scotland and Burke killed her grandson, a deaf and they were man and wife. What first directed dumb boy of twelve, by breaking his back. the attention of these two unconventional The two bodies were packed into a herring gentlemen to a new and interesting means barrel and put on a cart belonging to Hare. of adding to their respective incomes was The horse, having stopped on the way to the death in the boarding house of a lodger Knox’s and there being no possibility of named Donald who owed Hare £4. This inducing it to proceed by any amount of occurred on November 29, 1827. A confer- beating, the barrel was taken off the cart ence was held and as a result the body was and put on a porter’s barrow to complete sold to an assistant of Dr. Knox, the anat- the journey. The refractory horse was a omist, for £7.10. No questions were asked; recent purchase of Hare’s and was found to indeed every encouragement was held out have two large holes in its shoulder which for future dealings of the same sort. We were stuffed with cotton and covered over may easily believe that this profitable with a piece of skin from another horse. transaction started Burke and Hare and Later in the year Burke and M’Dougal the two women thinking, and that the went to Falkirk for a holiday. Before they glances which they directed at any ailing left Mrs. Hare tried to persuade Burke to inmate of the boarding house were expres- kill M’Dougal and sell her body to the sive of a very sinister interest. By and by anatomists. Mrs. Hare’s reason for wishing a lodger named Miller fell ill and when he to kill her was because she was a Scotch- was too weak to resist, Burke and Hare held woman and could not be trusted. a pillow over his face until he was suffo- The last two murders were committed cated. His body was sold to Dr. Knox for in October, 1828. There was, at this time, £10. The partners now took to prowling in Edinburgh, a half-witted youth named about the slums on the lookout for feeble James Wilson who was generally spoken and friendless people whose disappearance of as “Daft Jamie.” Ragged, bare-footed, would lead to no fuss. In all there were hatless, he was a familiar figure and some- sixteen murders committed before the arrest thing of a favorite. The two partners of the culprits. enveigled him into Hare’s house and made him partly drunk, threw themselves upon section. (2) To dispose of quietly or indi- him when he had fallen asleep, and after a rectly; to suppress; to smother; to shelve, desperate struggle, for he was very strong, as to burke a parliamentary question.” they succeeded in strangling him. When the The prisoners, repeatedly examined, body, for which £10 were paid, was recog- denied having anything to do with the nized by the students, Knox affected not to murder. After a month’s consideration of believe that it was the body of “Daft the case the Lord Advocate did not feel Jamie,” but as soon as a hue and cry broke justified in bringing it to trial with the out over the boy’s disappearance he ordered evidence in his possession and so Hare was the dissection to be begun in order to pre- given the opportunity to turn King’s evi- vent identification. Although there had been dence, and he readily accepted it. Through a violent struggle and although the body his revelations the indictment was drawn was brought to Knox’s very soon after up so as to include the murders of “Daft death, it was accepted without enquiry. Jamie” and Mary Patterson. As he could The last murder and that which led to not bear evidence against his wife she was the arrest of the culprits was that of Mrs. discharged and only Burke and M’Dougal Docherty, a little old woman who had come were tried. from Ireland to search for her son. She The public interest in the case and the was enveigled into Burke’s room and after indignation against the culprits can be participating in some Hallowe’en festivities realized from the fact that when the trial was suffocated. Next day, two of Hare’s took place on Christmas Eve, 1828, the lodgers, a man named Gray and his wife, Edinburgh police were reinforced with 300 became curious to find out what had become men. The infantry at Edinburgh Castle of the little old woman, and when by an and the cavalry at Piershill were kept under oversight of Burke they were left alone in arms in case their services should be needed. his room for a few minutes one of them The trial was held before four of the most lifted up the corner of the straw mattress distinguished judges in Scotland. Among and saw a naked corpse underneath. They the eminent counsels appearing on behalf told the police, who arrested the Hares, of the crown was Archibald Alison, who Burke and M’Dougal, and next day found afterwards became famous as the historian the body of the murdered woman at Dr. of Europe. Burke and M’Dougal were Knox’s. A post mortem was performed by each represented by four of the leading Dr. Christison, then professor of medical advocates in Edinburgh, attracted to the jurisprudence at the University, who found case more on account of the public interest that death had been due to asphyxia though in it than for any payment in money. The there were no marks about the face or neck most interesting and conclusive evidence, to show how this had been caused. As in of course, was given by Hare and his wife. the case of most of the other victims, her The latter, who must have been offered struggles had been restrained by the two immunity from punishment in return for men while one held his hand over her evidence, said that when Burke attacked mouth and nose until she was dead. It was Mrs. Docherty she and M’Dougal “flew this method of quietly killing without out of the room,” and that when a quarter leaving any trace of the means that was of an hour afterwards they returned, the responsible for the introduction into the woman had disappeared. “We asked no English language of a new word, the verb questions,” she said, “I had a supposition “to burke.” It is defined in Webster’s she had been murdered; I have seen such dictionary as (i) “To murder by suffocation tricks before.” or so as to produce few marks of violence, On Christmas morning, 1828, the jury for the purpose of obtaining a body for dis- found Burke guilty and the indictment against M’Dougal “not proven.” He was and more friendless the person, the more then condemned to be hanged on January likely was the crime to go unnoticed, and 28, 1829, and his body to be “publicly therefore the greater the likelihood of its dissected and anatomized.” being attempted. What had been pro- In the days before his execution he tection against murder was now found to exhibited an edifying piety. There were provide a motive, as no one would be so moments, however, when his thoughts were poor that his body was not worth £10. concentrated on purely worldly matters. The most interesting figure in this strange “I think,” he said, “I am entitled to get case, apart from the actual offenders, was that £5 from Dr. Knox which is still unpaid Dr. Knox, who did not, however, appear on the body of the woman Docherty.” at the trial. When his connection with them When asked what he wanted the money became known there was an outburst of for, he said it was to buy a coat and waist- intense indignation. He was fiercely de- coat to wear at his execution. Before he nounced in the press and shortly after the died he made a full confession in which he trial a mob hanged, and then burnt, an took credit to himself that he and Hare effigy of him in front of his house, and had never been guilty of body snatching. broke his windows with stones. He at first On the scaffold he knelt to say a prayer made no attempt to defend himself against and was careful to kneel on a silk handker- his accusers in the press. Later a committee chief to avoid soiling his trousers. He was was formed with the Marquis of Queens- hanged in the presence of some 20,000 to berry as chairman, to enquire into his 25,000 spectators, among whom it is connection with the murderers, but as the believed was Sir Walter Scott, who was personnel was chosen by Knox himself and greatly interested in the case. The body the meetings were held privately without was handed over to Dr. Munro, the anato- publication of the evidence, the result cannot mist, for public dissection and the skeleton be said to have established his innocence is today to be seen in the Anatomical in a very convincing way. Moreover, the Museum of the University of Edinburgh. chairman suddenly, without explanation, So great was the curiosity to see the body severed his connection with the enquiry that there was fierce rioting between the before it was finished. police and the students who had been unable Knox in his early days had been an army to gain admittance. Thirty thousand people surgeon. He had served with the army in are said to have filed past the body. Belgium during the Waterloo campaign What ultimately became of Hare, who and later in South Africa. In 1825, at the seems to have been, if anything, the guiltier age of thirty-two, he began to lecture on of the two, is not known. There used to anatomy and physiology in Edinburgh. His be a story that he obtained employment in genius for teaching and his faculty of a lime pit, and on his fellow workers dis- inspiring a love of science for its own sake covering his identity, that he was thrown brought him so quickly into the front rank into a pit and blinded, and afterwards of teachers that in the winter of 1828-1829 begged on the streets in London. he had a class of more than 500, including, The revelations which were made at the besides medical students, barristers, divin- trial induced a reign of terror among ity students, military and naval surgeons, the poor, not only in Edinburgh, but in all the and naturalists. To listen to Knox in his large cities of Great Britain. To be murdered lecture room was the greatest intellectual for purpose of robbery had been looked treat the Scottish capital could provide. upon as the privilege of those who were Taking the keenest interest in the members more or less well off, but for the purposes of his class, he became the guide, philos- of men like Burke and Hare, the poorer opher and friend of many of them, and was repaid with their trust and devotion. How much Knox was really to blame for Macaulay said of John Wilkes “that he buying the bodies of the victims of the was so hideous that the caricaturists were murders will probably never be known. forced, in their own despite, to flatter him.” Burke’s confession ends with the following This might with equal truth have been said exoneration of him: “Burke declares that of Knox. He had, like Wilkes, a markedly doctor Knox never incoureged^him, nither prognathous jaw, but was, in addition, taught him or incoregd him to murder any severely pitted with smallpox, had only person, nether any of his assistants, that one eye, and was almost quite bald. His worthy gentleman, Mr. Fergeson was the face, neck and shoulders were in continual movement from habit spasm. It may have only man that ever mentioned anything been to make up for the deficiencies of his about the bodies. He inquired where we face that he was extremely careful of his got that young woman Paterson.” It is dress, which according to his biographer was hardly possible to imagine that Knox had “significantly gay, if not loud in colouring.” no suspicions, but it is, on the other hand, Like Wilkes, Knox was, in spite of his easy to imagine that in his enthusiasm for looks, a great favorite with women. How- science and for teaching, in his desire to ever popular he may have been with his attract students by maintaining a reputa- students he was anything but liked by his tion for always having plenty of subjects colleagues. His gift of sarcasm filled Edin- for dissection, he may have carefully burgh with his enemies, and his contemptu- refrained from making enquiries. To have ous references to matters of religious belief got one set of resurrectionists into trouble gained him the disapproval of the orthodox. might easily have frightened the others That he had plenty of physical courage is away and led to his own ruin. shown by the fact that on the night when A case similar to that of Burke and Hare his effigy was burnt he walked unrecognized occurred in London in the year 1831. through the mob to the house of a friend. Three men, Bishop, Williams and May, When expostulated with he threw back his having brought the body of an Italian boy coat and showed himself to be armed with to the dissecting room at King’s College, a sword, pistols, and a Highland dirk. “You and suspicions being aroused, the demon- see my arms,” he said, “and had I been strator, Mr. Partridge, gave the three men called upon to defend myself, I would into the custody of the police. They were have measured a score of brutes.” tried, found guilty and condemned to The Burke and Hare incident does not death, the sentence of May, however, seem to have affected Knox’s professional being commuted to transportation for life. career at the time. It was not until 1835 Bishop and Williams made a confession that the number of his pupils began to which revealed the murder and selling of the fall off. This was due partly to the difficulty bodies of a woman and another boy. Their in getting subjects, partly to a decline in method of killing their victims was to the fortunes of the Edinburgh medical stupify them with rum and laudanum and school, and partly, no doubt, to the activi- then lower them head first into a well by ties of his enemies. He applied for the pro- means of a rope tied to the ankles. fessorship of pathology in 1837, and later In 1832, yielding to the overwhelming for that of physiology, but was unsuccessful pressure of public opinion, Parliament at on both occasions. He moved to Glasgow last passed the Anatomy Act. It provided in 1844 and later to London, where he died for the appointment of inspectors of anat- at the age of seventy-one, the last part of omy. Persons having lawful possession of a his professional career having been spent body had the right to give it up for dissec- as a general practitioner in Hackney. tion. This affected more especially the unclaimed bodies of the poor who had died anatomy, legislative enactment. Westminster in public institutions. No dead body could Rev., July, 1824. be removed for forty-eight hours after Bai le y , J. B. Diary of a Resurrectionist, etc. Lond., 1896. death, nor without twenty-four hours’ Cooper , B. Life of Sir Astley Cooper. Lond., 1843. notice being given to the inspector of anat- Fran k , M. Resurrection days. Interstate M. J., St. omy. A proper death certificate was to Louis, 1907, xiv, 293. accompany the body. Perhaps most impor- Lons dale , H. A Sketch of the Life and Writings of tant of all was the doing away with the dis- Robert Knox, the Anatomist. Lond., 1870. section of executed criminals. With the Mile s , A. Edinburgh School of Surgery before Lister. Lond., 1918. passing of the Act desecration of burial- Pack ard , F. R. Resurrectionists of London. Med. grounds and the trade of the body snatcher News, July 12, 1902, lxx xi , 64. and burker became things of the past. Peac hey , G. C. A Memoir of William and John Hunter. Plymouth, G. B., 1924. Bibli ogra ph y Pow er , D’Arcy . The rise and fall of the private medical schools in London. Brit. M. J., Lond., An appeal to the public and to the legislature on the June 29, 1895, 1, 1388. necessity of affording dead bodies to schools of Roughe ad , W. Burke and Hare. Edinb., 1921.