A Mr. Boys, who died in 1835, wished to be made into “essential salts” for the use of his female friends. In a letter to Dr. Campbell, written four years before his death, he asks: “Are you now disposed (without Burking) to accomplish my wish, when my breath or spirit shall have ceased to animate my carcase, to perform the operation of vitrifying my bones, and sublimating the rest, thereby cheating the Devil of his due, according to the ideas of some devotees among Christians? And, that I may not offend the delicate olfactory nerves of my female friends with a mass of putridity, if it be possible, let me rather fill a few little bottles of essential salts therefrom, and revive their drooping spirits. It may be irksome to you to superintend the business, but, perhaps, you have knowledge of some rising genius or geniuses who may be glad of a subject without paying for it. Let them slash and cut, and divide, as best please ’em.”
The following account, taken from a newspaper of 1810, shows that untoward events sometimes followed a request of this kind. A journeyman tailor died at the Black Prince, in Chandos Street, and directed, in his will, that his body should be opened in the presence of Mr. Wood, the landlord. This instruction was carried out. The paragraph goes on to say that the dissection was scarcely concluded “when the landlord, a stranger to such exhibitions, was seized with sickness and vomiting; and, on reaching the bar, was prevailed upon by his wife to take a glass of brandy and water; in a few minutes he was obliged to be carried to bed, never to rise again; on Friday last, the third day from the attack, he died in a state of delirium, not from contagion, or a predisposition to disease, but solely from the impression made upon his mind by the anatomical performance, which, he observed, exceeded in horror any thing he had ever beheld.”
It was not an uncommon thing for persons to try to put into effect part of Dermott’s plan, by offering to leave their bodies for anatomical purposes, on the condition that they were paid a certain sum down. This was generally only a swindling dodge, and one by which the teachers were not to be caught, as they could have no hold on the persons whose bodies they purchased, nor could they compel the friends to give them up after death. The following letter, preserved amongst Sir Astley Cooper’s papers, and now forming part of the Stone Collection at the Royal College of Surgeons of England, is a specimen:
“Sir,—I have been informed you are in the habit of purchasing bodys and allowing the person a sum weekly; knowing a poor woman that is desirous of doing so, I have taken the liberty of calling to know the truth.
“I remain, your humble servant.”
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On the back Sir Astley has written, “The truth is that you deserve to be hanged for such an unfeeling offer. A. C.”
The idea at the present day has not died out; quite recently a man called at the College of Surgeons, and offered to sell his body for a cash payment. It is a fairly common experience of Curators of Pathological Museums to have similar offers from persons suffering from a rare disease, or a curious deformity.
MORTSAFE IN GREYFRIARS CHURCHYARD, EDINBURGH.