Burke and Hare
William Hare and William Burke
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Human dissection was practised in Greece and Egypt until around 280 B.C., but then fell out of favour for hundreds of years until Leonardo da Vinci awakened interest in the early 16th century, with his anatomical drawings. As more people studied medicine, the demand for more cadavers increased, but relatives wanted their loved ones to be buried, rather than cut up. The answer was to use the bodies of felons not considered worthy of Christian burial.
To this end, a law was passed in 1505 giving the Incorporation of Surgeons and Barbers in Edinburgh the body of one executed criminal a year. Thirty-five years later, a similar law allowed the Companies of Barbers and Surgeons in London four executed criminals per year.
This allowance was insufficient for the growing medical schools, so in Great Britain in 1751, the Murder Act was passed. A person found guilty of murder was to be executed two days after sentencing, unless that day was a Sunday, in which case the execution would be deferred to the following Monday. It stated that the body of a murderer was not to be buried, but rather hanged in chains or else subjected to public dissection. It said, ‘in no case whatsoever the body of any murderer shall be suffered to be buried; unless after such body shall have been dissected and anatomised.’ The aim of the Act was ‘for better preventing the horrid crime of murder.’
Even so, the number of cadavers was insufficient for ongoing research. In Scotland, numbers were low, though there were more crimes than murder that carried the death sentence. In England and Wales, two hundred crimes were punishable by death but a further act, in 1823, removed mandatory death sentences from a long list of crimes and the requirement for more bodies to dissect was ever growing. Medical schools were willing to pay for fresh supplies.
Thus, some enterprising people began exhuming recently buried corpses. Cadavers were not regarded as property so grave robbers were free from the threat of prosecution for theft and were able to sell their spoils to private doctors and medical establishments. The grave robbers became known, ghoulishly, as Resurrection men.
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Families concerned for the safekeeping of their relatives’ remains watched over their graves, erecting watch towers in graveyards, or building a mortsafe of iron over the grave. After six weeks or so, the mortsafe might be removed, as the corpse beneath was no longer of any value for dissection.
Some men went further and were seduced into what was called ‘anatomy murder.’ Fresher bodies commanded higher prices and in Edinburgh, from 1827 to 1828, two Irishmen, William Burke and William Hare, murdered sixteen people and sold their bodies to the anatomist Robert Knox for use in his lectures.
They perfected a method of suffocation which left no damage or marks on the body. They enticed poor and needy citizens to their lodgings and dispatched them quickly, selling them for £7 to £10 each, the equivalent of £953 to £1360 in 2024.
Eventually, greed overwhelmed them, and they became careless, arousing much suspicion when they killed a well-known resident called ‘Daft Jamie,’ an 18-year-old street beggar. Students at Knox’s lecture recognised the body – Jamie had a deformed foot – but Knox quickly removed it and the boy’s head. He escaped conviction for complicity in the murders by pleading ignorance, but it was clear to the general populace that he had full knowledge that the bodies he bought had been murdered by Burke and Hare. His reputation suffered and he removed to London, where he had a medical practice in Hackney.
On Christmas Eve, 1828, Burke and Hare went on trial for the murder of Jamie Wilson. Burke was found guilty and condemned to death by hanging. Hare turned King’s evidence and was released and nothing more is known of him. Burke was hanged in public in Edinburgh on 28th January. 1829 and his body was used for dissection. His skeleton is on display in the Anatomy Museum, University of Edinburgh.
Edinburgh was a leader in anatomical study in Europe in the early 19th century. Apart from murderers, the only other bodies permitted for dissection were from those who had died in prison, had committed suicide or were orphans.
The Murder Act of 1751 was repealed in 1828. The 1832Anatomy Act ended the practice of supplying bodies of executed murderers for dissection and authorised the use of cadavers from the workhouses which remained unclaimed after 48 hours.
In modern times, people may indicate that they wish to donate their bodies for medical research.
