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Introduction
| Birth of anatomy | Development
of surgery | Supplying surgeons
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 William
Burke |
The resurrection men
In seeking respectability, Cheselden
had unwittingly set surgery on a darker path. There were plenty of trainee
surgeons, but they had nothing to train on. It was possible to get hold
of bodies in the 18th century, but public executions provided the only
legitimate source of corpses, and it was not easy for students of anatomy
to claim the bodies. The family of the condemned man would usually try
to get the body back as soon as possible, since in some cases it was possible
to revive a hanged man. In any case, there remained a strong belief that
in order to stand a chance of redemption, a corpse should be left intact.
Dissection was equivalent to damnation.
There were simply not enough bodies supplied by the hangman's gallows to meet demand. Elsewhere in Europe, anatomy schools were allowed to take bodies from poor hospitals. In Britain, surgeons had to take more extreme measures. Medical historian Ruth Richardson says: 'Bodysnatching started to happen all over the place. Anatomists ... spawned a new profession: resurrection men.' These grave robbers became the scourge of the bereaved. Watchtowers were built within cemeteries so that people could keep an eye out for bodysnatchers. Some rich people were buried within mort-safes, fortress graves complete with walls and gates to keep the grave robbers out. Gangs of resurrection men competed for business as anatomists competed to find the best suppliers of fresh corpses. As demand grew, the quest for bodies became ever more desperate.
Burke and Hare
The professional credibility that the Hunters,
among others, managed to establish for surgeons in the 18th century was
destroyed in the early 19th century. Grave robbing continued apace. The
trade in backstreet corpses thrived in Edinburgh, then the epicentre of
surgical training. Two particular suppliers – William Burke and William
Hare – gained a reputation for themselves as suppliers of the freshest
corpses available. Their corpses had never been buried – in fact, they
had never left the guesthouse which the two men ran, and where they were
smothered.
The murderers supplied corpses to, among others, Robert Knox, a celebrated anatomist and the most popular lecturer at the city's Medical School, who attracted as many as 500 students per class. Experts believe that Knox must have known that the corpses he was receiving had met a sticky end, but that he turned a blind eye. Ruth Richardson says: 'If Knox was as brilliant an anatomist as everybody said, he should have had some knowledge that these bodies had been killed.'
For this reason, once the murderers were found out (Hare eventually informed on his partner), the fact that Knox went unpunished, without so much as making an apology, caused outrage. Demonstrations against him turned to rioting. His effigy was ripped apart – an indication of what the public thought surgeons did to the dead.
Parliament was forced to act, and the Anatomy Act of 1832 put an end to grave robbing and murder. Unclaimed bodies from the poor house were made available for anatomists to practice on.
Image: Mary Evans Picture Library