In Holland there was no lack of material for teaching anatomy, and for students to learn operative surgery on the dead body. The Dissecting School at Leyden was supplied from the civil hospitals at Amsterdam. There was no prejudice against dissection in Holland; in all the principal towns lectures on anatomy were publicly given, and dissected subjects were exhibited. Here, again, exhumation was not necessary, and was unknown.
In the United States the laws relating to anatomy varied very considerably in the different States; there was no regular supply for the schools, and, consequently, subjects had to be obtained by the aid of resurrection-men. In Philadelphia and Baltimore, the two great Medical Schools of the United States in those days, the supply of bodies was obtained almost entirely from the “Potter’s Field,” the burial-place of the poorest classes. This exhumation was carried on by an understanding with the authorities that the men employed by the schools in this work should not be interfered with. Dissection in the United States was, as in this country, looked upon with great aversion; this was, no doubt, mainly owing to the fact that the bodies used for this purpose were obtained from the graves.
CHAPTER IV.
The Diary of a Resurrectionist is written on 16 leaves, but is, unfortunately, imperfect. The first entry is November 28th, 1811, and the last December 5th, 1812. There are no entries in May, June, and July; during these months there would be little demand for subjects, as the sessions of the Anatomical Schools ran from October to May. Besides this, the light nights would interfere with the work of the men. The entry under the date February 25th refers to this: “the moon at the full, could not go.” The state of the moon was of great importance to these men in their work; the writer of the Diary has on one of the pages copied out the “Rules for finding the moon on any given day,” and has set out the epact for 1812 and 1813.
There is no clue in the Diary itself as to the name of the writer, and, unfortunately, Sir Thomas Longmore[22] was quite unable to remember the name of the individual from whom he received it. Feeling was very strong against the men who had been engaged in the resurrection business, and therefore, when information was required from them, every effort was made to keep their names secret. As late as 1843, when the Life of Sir Astley Cooper was published, the name of this man was carefully concealed, though most of the other members of the gang were freely spoken of under their full names. Bransby Cooper[23] quotes a written statement made by this man to the effect that he was in Maidstone Gaol in October, 1813. Enquiry at the gaol has, however, failed to find any mention of him; the original document is not forthcoming, and it is very probable that there is a mistake as regards the date. In this statement he is called Josh. N——, and Bransby Cooper speaks of him as N. There is a letter on “Body-snatchers” in the Medical Times, 1883, vol. i. p. 343, signed, “Your Old Correspondent”; the writer of the letter was, in all probability, Mr. T. Madden Stone, who had been a correspondent of the journal in question from the time of its foundation. Mr. Stone had a valuable collection of papers and autographs, and his letter is really a reprint of a paper in his possession relating to payments made to the resurrection-men. In it occurs the following passage: “N.B., Sir Astley Cooper great friend to Naples.” Mr. Stone presented a large number of papers and letters to the Royal College of Surgeons, but this particular one is not in the collection. It is curious that Bransby Cooper makes no special mention of Naples in his book, although he gives an account of all the other men with whom Sir Astley had any dealings. He gives a long notice of “N.,” and mentions that he wrote the Diary from which quotations are made; this is the document now under consideration.
The witness “C. D.,” who was examined before the Committee on Anatomy in 1828, was, in all probability, Naples; he gave statistics to show the number of bodies obtained, and stated that the figures were taken “from my book.” The letters “C. D.” are not given as initials; the three resurrection-men who gave evidence were distinguished as “A. B.,” “C. D.,” and “F. G.” The testimony was probably given on the condition that no names were revealed, and, therefore, definite information cannot be obtained as to “C. D.’s” real name from the House of Commons.