é

Rurke & Hare, Dealers

n Death

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By Serat.
CARL LEDOUX

M

Few Criminal Records Can Rival in Sheer Dramatic Horror the Hundred-Year-
Old Story of Burke and Hare, Human Vultures Who Plied a Ghoulish Trade in
Scotland’s Ancient Capital, Edinburgh—This Account, Based on Roughead’s
Authoritative Documentation, Reviews the Case for “The Shoulder Strap”

iP UNTIL 1828 when the Anatomy Act
as passed, British medical schools and
lleges of surgery were severely handi-
ipped by the lack of subjects for dissection
nd study. This was particularly true in
cotland where the populace took very
terally the interpretation of resurrection
n Judgment Day, and they objected
renuously to the dismemberment of friends
nd relatives, even though it furthered the
oble cause of medical science.

The city of Edinburgh is well known as
ne of the world’s leading medical and
irgical centres, and outstanding facilities
xr the study of medicine have existed there
nee early in the 16th century. In 1505
1e Edinburgh town council recognized that
udents of surgery‘must be given practical
istruction in anatomy and dissection in
ursuing their studies as apprentices to the
irgeons of the day. Therefore, the council
ranted a charter to the Incorporation of
urgeons and Barbers, which permitted
rem to receive the body of one person con-
emned to death each year, “efter he be deid
) mak anatomea of, quhairthrow we may
ave experience Ilk ane to instruct uthers,
nd we sall do suffrage for the soule.” The
ranting of one body annually to the sur-
eons for the purpose of widening their
<perience and instructing others was
ntirely inadequate, but this was the law
ntil 1694, when they were allowed to have
odies from gaols, foundlings who died
efore being apprenticed, still-born children,
licides and condemned persons.

This further supply, however, did not
rovide sufficient subjects for the dissection
ible, particularly as in 1705 a chair in
natomy was established, the professor
ceiving a stipend of £15 per annum.
etween 1720 and 1846 the science of
irgery made swift advances until in 1826
vere were several hundred students in the
arious lecture rooms of Edinburgh.

The dissecting tables had to be supplied,
ut the lawful source fell far short of the
squirements. Many of the students, like
leir predecessors the surgeons’ and barbers’
pprentices, robbed graveyards to secure
laterial. It’s a well-known fact that many
f the world’s most eminent surgeons of that
eriod engaged in this practice during their
cudent days to gain the experience so vital
) their later success in succouring mankind.

HIRTEENTH EDITION

Readers.

However, this was before the passing of the
Anatomy Act which later lawfully provided
the necessary cadavers.

In the latter 18th and early 19th centuries
“grave-robbing” became so prevalent that
many Scottish churchyards were covered
with little iron cages which relatives and
friends of the deceased had erected to pre-
vent violation of the graves. The rich fre-
quently employed guards to watch graves,
while the poorer people often kept watch
in relays while the grave was still fresh.

ADVENT OF ‘‘RESURRECTIONISTS”

Besides the students and apprentices who
robbed graves purely from a scientific point
of view and whose zeal for their profession
overcame fear of capture by the outraged
citizenry a new profession sprang up; these
were the “resurrectionists” or grave-robbers
who sold their wares to schools of anatomy.
These ghouls employed various stratagems
for lifting bodies from graves. One of the
simplest was to dig a hole near the head of
the grave using wooden instruments to
lessen noise and detection. The earth would
be carefully placed on a piece of sacking.
Then, when the coffin lid was reached, a
pair of metal hooks was lowered into the
grave, followed by sacking to deaden noise.
A quick upward jerk on the hooks broke the
upper part of the coffin lid, and the body
was withdrawn through the hole. The

shroud was then stuffed back in the grave
and the hole refilled and sodded. The body,

in a sack, was taken away in a cart or gig.

The schools were not too inquisitive as
to the source of supply, and since it was
considered perfectly ethical for a person to
sell the body of a relative or a friend who
died without relatives, the “resurrection-
ists’ flourished and kept the dissecting
tables fairly well supplied.

The resurrectionist, however, did not con-
fine himself to grave-robbing; he also acted
as “middleman” and purchased bodies from
lodging house keepers, relatives and old hags
who acted as nurses to the poor. Naturally
they made a profit on each transaction.

The only instance of two women being
engaged in the trade was in 1752 when
Helen Torrance and Jean Waldie stole a
child, suffocated it and then sold the body
to a surgeon for 2/6d “and the price of a
dram.” Apparently they had undertaken
to furnish the surgeon with a dead child,
and being unable to secure one, resorted to
kidnapping and murder. Both women were
hanged for this crime.

Due to the abhorrence with which the
public viewed grave-robbing there were
several riots and the houses of surgeons, as
well as those suspected of aiding in the prac-
tice, were often attacked by infuriated mobs.
In fact, on at least two occasions the College
of Surgeons had to disassociate itself from

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