She said, that on Monday week an old woman, leading a young person who was intoxicated, knocked at her door, and asked for Covington. She directed her to the next house, No. 7, and saw her go in there with the girl. She afterwards heard people going in and out, and thought at the time that they were fetching liquor from the public-house. The girl afterwards ran up stairs, and witness heard her run about the upper room, followed by a man. The girl said, 'Oh! you'll kill me, you'll kill me.' The old woman remained in the lower room, and the witness heard her say, 'Oh, my dear,' when the girl cried out, but she did not appear to move, or take any further notice. Witness heard the girl fall when she cried out. It was then late at night, and about two in the morning she heard a rustling in the passage, as if two persons were carrying something out.
Mr. Broughton, after some further inquiries, had the prisoners placed at the bar separately, to hear if they wished to make any defence or explanation; but he repeatedly cautioned them that they were not obliged to say anything, and that if they did, it might be used against them.
They all protested very earnestly, that what Mrs. Smith and her niece saw carried out was nothing but a bedstead and a table, and other things, which had been carried away by night. The noises and crying out which she had heard were laughing, which ended in a quarrel; and an old woman, named Smith, who had lived with them, moved away in consequence. It appeared, in fact, that the prisoners had been shifting about, from place to place, and bilking their landlords.
The witness Harding being again questioned, declared that what she saw were boxes. She was near, and saw them distinctly, and was certain she could not be mistaken.
It was stated, that a daughter of Mrs. Smith's, who is married to a policeman, also saw the boxes, and she actually followed the party some distance; but seeing that they were going across the fields, she was afraid to proceed further. She was not then present, however.
Mr. Broughton said, that from the positive swearing of the witnesses, he must believe that it was a box which they saw carried out; and it was exceedingly to be regretted that means had not been taken to stop the party, and ascertain what the box contained. God forbid that he should say that it did contain a body; but the circumstances stated by Mrs. Smith as to what had occurred on Monday week, when she heard the girl running about, followed by a man, and crying out, 'you'll kill me,' and her hearing the faint cries of murder on Wednesday, and seeing the box carried off some hours afterwards, made it a case of strong suspicion, and he would give ample time to search for further evidence.
Sarah Bradley was discharged, nothing having been stated against her. The other three prisoners were remanded for a week.
Accordingly, on that day, the prisoners were again brought up; but no conclusive evidence being adduced against them, they were discharged.
On taking a summary view of the chief subject connected with the crime of Burking, and which has particularly engaged our attention during our progress through this work, we are fully aware that we have, in several instances, laid ourselves open to the animadversions and the opprobrium of the surgical profession at large, inasmuch as we may have been supposed to attach to it a positive degree of stigma, as having been the encourager, and in some cases, the actual parent of the Burking system, which, without their co-operation and connivance, would never have been known in this country. In this respect, however, the charge against us is unfounded. We have adhered to a strict line of impartiality in recording the different arguments which have been adduced, publicly and privately, against the practices of the anatomical schools in general, and particularly in regard to the culpable ignorance which has been manifestly displayed by several persons connected with the purchase of dead bodies, in their discrimination between a murdered person and a corpse that has been exhumed. It would be an affected display of sensibility to condemn altogether the sale and purchase of human corpses; for it is a practice which must and will prevail, so long as a knowledge of the anatomy of the human frame constitutes a part of the education of the medical student. Our great aim, however, has been, by a collision of arguments, and an impartial exposition of facts, to devise those measures by which the science of anatomy may be encouraged, facilitated, and maintained, without having recourse for its support to midnight murders, and to the reckless sacrifice of life, on account of the tempting gain which is held out to those whose consummate villainy can lead them to the commission of such dreadful crimes. It is on record in the preceding pages that several individuals have fallen under the murderous grasp of the Burker, whose bodies have been conveyed to the hospitals and the anatomical schools, and there disposed of with the utmost facility, and apparently without the slightest suspicion, as if they were the carcasses of so many pigs; whilst at the same time the experience of the purchasers of the subjects, leaving the extent of science out of the question altogether, should have enabled them at once to decide upon the manner in which the subject came by its death, or, in other words, whether it was violent or natural. In the illustration of this part of our argument, let us, for instance, take the cases of Mrs. Walsh and Sarah Vesey. It was proved in evidence, that on the morning after the murder of the former, her body was carried out of the house by the husband. Of its destination no doubt whatever can exist. What opinion, then, can we form of the surgical professor, who can have a human corpse offered to him before it is scarcely cold, destitute of all the distinctive marks of exhumation, and without any of the concomitant signs of corruption, coolly and deliberately purchasing the same, without instituting the slightest inquiry into the suspicious nature of the subject, and whether he was not himself actually abetting and encouraging a human wretch in the crime of murder? We have never been told by any of the surgical professors of the anatomical schools, that their science, or, more properly speaking, their knowledge, is still so far in its infancy, that they do not know of any criteria by which to judge of a murdered subject, and one that has undergone the ceremony of exhumation, and been torn from the grave by the resurrectionist. The public, however, must take it for granted that such ignorance on the part of the professor does actually exist; or what is the natural inference that must be drawn? that he must be conscious to himself that some deed of violence has been committed upon the body, so as to occasion death, but that it does not become him to institute any inquiry into the business, as he is not supposed to entertain the slightest suspicion but that the body has been clandestinely obtained from the grave. We cannot designate this conduct by any other term than a bonus held out for the crime of murder; and it is on this account, and on this account only, that in our arguments we have dwelt particularly on the necessity of the interference of the legislature to devise those legal means, by which the science of anatomy may be supported, without being obliged to have recourse to the dreadful crime of murder, or even to the disgusting avocation of the resurrectionist.
It appears that, notwithstanding the greater facility which is offered in France to the surgical student in the prosecution of his anatomical knowledge, owing to the removal of many of the impediments which exist in this country in the procuring of human corpses for the purpose of dissection, yet that the attention of some of the most enlightened men of that country has for some time been directed to the devising of those measures, by which the human body may, in a great degree, be dispensed with, whilst, at the same time, the promotion of science is neither frustrated nor impeded. Amongst those men, who have chiefly signalized themselves in these laudable endeavours, stands conspicuously M. Auzouz, who, by perseverance, industry, and skill, has succeeded in the construction of an artificial skeleton, which promises to answer almost all the purposes of the human body. In the preparation of this extraordinary piece of mechanism, if it may be so called, he has been employed for several years. It has received the sanction and approbation of the principal medical professors of Paris, and it is now brought to this country as an exhibition, with the intent of promoting the science of artificial anatomy, and the removal of those abuses and inconveniences with which the dissection of the human body is attended.