In
19th century Edinburgh, one of the most influential surgeons of the
time, a Dr Robert Knox (MD (Doctor of Medicine), FRCSEd (Fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh), FRSEd (Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh) ) was pushing the boundaries of medical
knowledge.
His research methods involved the dissection of
corpses and the discussion of these dissections with his students at
the Edinburgh Medical College, and members of the public who pad to
watch these dissections (females not allowed of course).
Unfortunately this method of instruction depended greatly on a
reliable supply of fresh bodies.
This requirement for fresh
(or at worst, freshish) cadavers gave rise to the phenomenon known as
“Resurrection Men”. Resurrectionists were gangs of men who raided
cemeteries at night and dug up freshly buried bodies which they then
sold to to medical schools and professors such as Knox.
Among
the most infamous of these resurrectionists or “body-snatchers”
were the Irish duo of William Burke and William Hare (a pair who only
operated in Edinburgh). These two were itinerant labourers (AKA
Navvies)who had moved to Scotland to work on the Union Canal.
Both eventually ended up in Edinburgh living in the same lodging
house in the West Port.
The activities of these
restrictionists were largely confined to the Central Belt and Eastern
Scotland below the the Highland line, but they were not confined to
Scotland. This is where we get the term mortgage in it's original
form – it comes from the Old French "death pledge,"
apparently meaning that the pledge ends on the death of the pledger
or when the obligation is fulfilled. A closely related term is the
“mort-safe” which determined a form of graveyard architecture and
a thankfully short-lived need for armed watchmen in graveyards. With
these resurrectionist activities, Scotland, not for the first time,
is setting a trend.
Sadly, this is not one our proudest
moments. The indiscriminate and widespread removal of new inhabitants
of graveyards may, and I stress may, have been useful to the medical
profession. On the whole I doubt it:-
Did Knox discover
anything? No.
Did he advance medical knowledge in the Europe
of his time? Yes.
Are these contradictory concepts? No, they
aren't, Knox and his contemporaries were at the forefront of European
medicine, yet the early 19th century European form of medicine was,
basically, butchery.
Knox and his contemporaries in many
countries were only just coming round to the notion that the ancients
such as Hippocrates, Galen, Rhazes (Muhammad ibn Zakarīya Rāzi),
Avenzoar (Ibn Zuhr), Maimondes and Avicenna (Ibn Suva) maybe knew
better than these modern European supermen.
The
suppliers.....
Burke
(1792 – 28 January 1829) was born in Urney, near Strabane, in the
very west of County Tyrone, part of the Province of Ulster in the
north of Ireland. After trying his hand at a variety of trades and
serving as an officer's servant in the Donegal Militia, he left his
wife and two children in Ireland and emigrated to Scotland about
1817, working as a navvy on the Union Canal.
Hare's (born
1792 or 1804) birthplace is variously given as Newry or Derry, both
of which are also in the Province of Ulster in Ireland. Like Burke,
he emigrated to Scotland and worked as a Union Canal labourer. The
pair then moved to Edinburgh, where they took lodgings with Maggie
Laird and Nell Macdougal, two women of negotiable virtue, in the
district of the West Port (this district is now known as “The Pubic
Triangle”). In 1826, Hare married Margaret Laird. She continued to
run the lodging house, and Hare worked on the canal.
Although
common practice at the time, digging up corpses was a pretty
dangerous business what with mort-safes, mort-gages and armed guards
in the graveyards. Besides the fresher the bodies they delivered to
Professor Robert Knox (on a no questions asked basis) the better.
Contrary to popular belief, Burke and Hare didn't spend much time
digging up bodies (too much work probably), so they cut out the
middleman - in fact, they cut out the entire burying process....
In
1827 a lodger of Margaret Laird (Hares wife) named Donald died
naturally owing him £4 in rent. Hare knew that there was a high
demand for bodies for anatomical study and saw a way the dead man
could pay back his debt. On the day of Old Donald's funeral the two
men removed his body from the coffin and filled it with tanning bark.
Later they took the body to Professor Knox at Surgeon Square and were
paid 7 pounds and 10 shillings for it.
They celebrated their
easily gained cash, but the money wasn't to last and when another of
Hare's lodger's, Joseph, fell ill (although not seriously) Burke and
Hare decided to take it upon themselves to end his suffering whilst
seeing another opportunity for easy money and so their murderous
career began. It isn't known accurately how many they killed, but
estimates generally run from 16-30.
Their tenure as Knoxes
main supplier of stiffs came to an end on either October 31st or
November 1st (depending on which source you refer to) when they were
turned in by another couple, a James and Ann Gray who also lodged
with them. The Greys became suspicious when they were warned to stay
out of the spare room. Being good Calvinist Scots, this aroused their
suspicions and they didn't stay out. When they entered they
discovered the body of Mary Docherty and immediately confronted Helen
who panicked and offered them £10 per week to keep quiet. £10
was a significant chunk of money at the time, especially for a
working class couple (AKA the “lower orders”).
The police
investigation began immediately but it nearly fell apart just as
quickly as there were no corpuses to habeas thanks to Knox. Except
that there were, one of the victims, a children's entertainer known
as 'Daft Jamie'. He had a deformed foot and was instantly recognised
by paying students at Professor Knox's anatomy class. Knox strongly
denied that the subject was James Wilson but immediately began his
lecture by dissecting the face.
Eventually, the Lord
Advocate, Sir William Rae, offered Hare immunity to turn King's
Evidence and testify against Burke and Helen which he readily did.
The short trial at the High Court of Justicuary began on Christmas
Eve 1828 and the following morning Burke and Helen were charged with
the murder of Mary Docherty and Burke alone was also charged with the
murder of Mary Paterson and James Wilson and sentenced to death by
hanging. Helen's part in the crimes were 'not proven' and she was
freed.
On January 28th 1929 over 25,000 people attended and
cheered the hanging of William Burke in the Lawnmarket. Ironically
his body ended up being dissected in anatomy lectures and some
students removed peices of his skin and bound a book from it, stamped
on the front in gold 'Burke's Skin 1829' . Before dissection, Burke's
body was put on public exhibition and thousands of people streamed
passed his his naked corpse on the slab at a rate of 60 per minute.
His skeleton can still be seen at Surgeon's Hall (part of the
University of Edinburgh Medical School) along with his death mask and
the life mask of Hare.