The complaint as to the scarcity of bodies for dissection is as old as the history of anatomy itself. Great respect for the body of the dead has characterised mankind in nearly all ages; post mortem dissection was looked upon as a great indignity by the relatives of the deceased, and every precaution was taken to prevent its occurrence.
It would be beyond the scope of the present work to attempt a history of anatomical teaching; as will be pointed out later on, the resurrection-men did not come into existence until the early part of the eighteenth century.
In Great Britain the study of medicine and surgery was much hampered at this date by the scarcity of opportunities by which the student might get a practical acquaintance with the anatomy of the human body. A knowledge of anatomy was insisted upon by the Corporation of Surgeons, as each student had to produce a certificate of having attended at least two courses of dissection. It is unnecessary to point out the wisdom of this condition in the case of men who were to go out into the world as surgeons, and, consequently, to have the lives of their fellow-men in their hands. The attendance on the two courses of dissection could be evaded, and this was frequently done. The Apothecaries’ Hall had no such restriction, and, consequently, many men went thither and received a qualification to practise, although they were quite unacquainted with human anatomy. The work of such ’prentice hands one trembles to think of; whatever experience these men did gain was obtained after they began to practise, and so must have been at the expense of their patients, who were generally those of the poorer class in life.
It was pointed out by Mr. Guthrie, that in the then state of the law a surgeon might be punished in one Court for want of skill, and in another Court the same individual might also be punished for trying to obtain that skill. Before the Anatomy Committee, in 1828, Sir Astley Cooper narrated the case of a young man who was rejected at the College of Surgeons on account of his ignorance of the parts of the body; it was found, on enquiry, that he was a most diligent student, and that his ignorance arose entirely from his being unable to procure that which was necessary for carrying on this part of his education.
When bodies were obtained for dissection it was generally by surreptitious means; the newly-made grave was too often the source from whence the supply was obtained. At first there was no direct trade or traffic in subjects by men who devoted all their efforts to this mode of obtaining a livelihood. The students supplied their own wants as they arose. Mr. G. S. Patterson told the Committee that at St. George’s Hospital the students had to exhume bodies for their own use.
In the Diary of a Late Physician Samuel Warren has given us a chapter on this subject, which he calls “Grave Doings,” and which is probably founded on fact. The object in the expedition here recorded was, however, rather to obtain a valuable pathological specimen, than to get a body for dissection. Writers of fiction have made use of body-snatching, and have given a gruesome turn to their stories by making the body, when uncovered, turn out to be that of a relation or friend of some one of the party engaged in the exhumation. Such a tale is recorded in the Monthly Magazine for April, 1827; there a sailor is pressed into the service of some students who were anxious to obtain a body. The subject was safely brought home, and, on being taken from the sack, turned out to be the sweetheart of the sailor, who had just returned from sea, and, not having heard of his girl’s decease, was on his way to greet her after a long absence from home. Truth and fiction often agree. There is a case on record of a child who had died of scrofula, and whose body was brought to St. Thomas’ Hospital by Holliss, a well-known resurrectionist. The body was at once recognised by one of the students as that of his sister’s child; on this being made known to the authorities at the hospital, the corpse was immediately buried before any dissection had taken place.
In vols. 1 and 2 of the Medical Times there is a series of articles, entitled “The Confessions of Jasper Muddle, Dissecting-room Porter.” These papers are signed “Rocket,” but were written by Albert Smith.[2] One of the articles contains an account of a handsome young lady who came to the dissecting-room late at night, and begged for the body of a murderer executed the previous day, which was then being injected, ready for lecture purposes. In the Tale of Two Cities, Dickens has given us a good study of a resurrection-man in the person of Mr. Cruncher. Moir in Mansie Wauch, Lytton in Lucretia, Mrs. Crowe in Light and Darkness, and Miss Sergeant in Dr. Endicott’s Experiment, have also used the body-snatcher in fiction.
As long as the Barber Surgeons kept to their right of the exclusive teaching of anatomy, there was small need of bodies for dissection. This right the Company jealously guarded. On 21st May, 1573, the following entry occurs in the records, “Here was John Deane and appoynted to brynge in his fyne xli for havinge an Anathomye in his howse contrary to an order in that behalf between this and mydsomer next.”[3] As late as 1714 this rule was put in force against no less a man than William Cheselden. The entry in the books of the Company runs as follows, “At a Court of Assistants of the Company of Barbers and Surgeons, held on the 25th March, 1714. Our Master acquainting the Court that Mr. William Cheselden, a member of this Company, did frequently procure the Dead bodies of Malefactors from the place of execution and dissect the same at his own house, as well during the Company’s Publick Lectures as at other times without the leave of the Governors and contrary to the Company’s By law in that behalf. By which means it became more difficult for the Beadles to bring away the Companies Bodies and likewise drew away the members of this Company and others from the Public Dissections and Lectures at the Hall. The said Mr. Cheselden was, therefore, called in. But having submitted himself to the pleasure of the Court with a promise never to dissect at the same as the Company had their Lecture at the Hall, nor without leave of the Governors for the time being, the said Mr. Cheselden was excused for what had passed with a reproof for the same pronounced by the Master at the desire of the Court.”[4]
By the Act Henry VIII., xxii., cap. 12, provision was made for the Company of Barbers and Surgeons to have the bodies of malefactors for the purpose of dissection. This part of the Act was as follows: “And further be it enacted by thauctoritie aforesayd, that the sayd maysters or governours of the mistery and comminaltie of barbours and surgeons of Londō & their successours yerely for ever after their sad discrecions at their free liberte and pleasure shal and maie have and take without cõtradiction foure persons condempned adjudged and put to deathe for feloni by the due order of the Kynges lawe of thys realme for anatomies with out any further sute or labour to be made to the kynges highnes his heyres or successors for the same. And to make incision of the same deade bodies or otherwyse to order the same after their said discrecions at their pleasure for their further and better knowlage instruction in sight learnyng & experience in the sayd scyence or facultie of Surgery.”
The “foure bodies” could not always be obtained without difficulty; despite the precautions of the Company private anatomy was, to a certain extent, carried on, and the bodies of malefactors had a market value. The following entries from the Annals of the Barber Surgeons are illustrative of this: