_Death of Donald the Pensioner--Hare's Debt--Negotiations with the
Doctors--A Bargain Struck--Sale of Donald's Body._
The beginning of the connection of the persons whose career, up till 1827,
we have endeavoured to describe in the preceding chapter, with the
resurrectionist movement, may be said to have been to a certain extent
accidental.
In Hare's house in Tanner's Close there resided for some time an old
pensioner named Donald. About Christmas, 1827, he died, owing his landlord
about £4, but as a set off against this his quarter's pension was about
due, though, of course, it was more likely this would go to some relative
who might be unwilling to pay the debt to Hare. The funeral arrangements
were made, and everything was in readiness for consigning the remains of
the old veteran to their kindred dust, when it occurred to Hare that by
selling the body to the doctors he might be able to save himself from
making a bad debt through the inconvenient death of his lodger before the
pension was due. Burke, in his confession, stated that Hare made the
proposition to him, promising a share of the proceeds. After some
hesitation Burke agreed to the scheme; the coffin, which had been "screwed
down," was opened, and tanners' bark substituted for the body, which was
concealed in the bed. Thereafter the coffin and its contents were
carefully buried. In the evening the two men visited Surgeon's Square,
Hare remaining near at hand, while Burke went towards the door of Dr.
Knox's class-rooms. He was noticed by one of the students; and the
following strange conversation, founded on the record of it by Leighton,
took place between them:--
"Were you looking for any one?" the student said, as he peered into the
dour-looking face of the stranger, where perhaps there had never even once
been seen a blush.
"Umph! Are you Dr. Knox?"
"No; but I am one of his students," was the reply of the young man, who
was now nearly pretty well satisfied as to the intention of the stranger
whom he had accosted.
"And sure," observed the latter, "I'm not far wrong thin, afther all."
"And I may suit your purpose as well, perhaps."
"Perhaps," answered the strange man; "perhaps you may, sir."
"Well," said our friend, the young student, "don't be at all afraid to
speak out. Tell me your business, although I have myself an idea as to
what it may be. Have you got '_The Thing_?'"
"Doun't know, sir, what you mean."
"Ah! not an old hand at the trade, I perceive. You were never here before,
perhaps?"
"No," said the stranger.
"And don't know what to say?"
"No," said the stranger. And the bashful man again turned his gloomy
downcast optics to the ground, and appeared also as if he didn't very well
know or to be able to make up his mind as to what he should do with those
hands of his, which were not made for kid gloves--perhaps for skin of
another kind rather.
And shouldn't this hardened and callous-hearted student have been sorry
for a man in such confusion? But he wasn't; nay, he evidently had no
sympathy whatever with his refinement.
"Why, man, don't you speak out?" he said somewhat impatiently.
"There's somebody coming through the Square there," was the reply, as the
man looked furtively to a side.
"Come in here, then," said the student, as he pulled the man into a large
room where there were already three other young men, who also acted as
assistants of Dr. Knox. And there now they were, in the midst of a great
number of coarse tables, with one in the middle, whereon were
deposited--each having its portion--masses or lumps of some matter which
could not be seen by reason of all of them being covered with pieces of
cloth--once white, but now dirty gray, as if they had been soiled with
clammy hands for weeks or months....
"Sure, and I'm among the dead," said the man, ... "and I have something ov
that kind to----"
"Sell," added an assistant sharply, as, in his scientific ardour, he
anticipated the merchant.
"Yes."...
"And what do you give for _wun_?" he answered, as he sidled up to the ear
of the young anatomist who had been speaking to him.
"Sometimes as high as £10."...
"And wouldn't you give a pound more for a fresh one?" said he, with that
intoxication of hope which sometimes makes a beggar play with a new-born
fortune.
"Sometimes more and sometimes less," replied the other; "but 'the thing'
must always be seen."
"And by my sowl it is a good thing, and worth the money any how."
"Where is it?"
"At home."
"Then if you will bring it here about ten it will be examined, and you
will get your money; and since you are a beginner, I may tell you, you had
better bring it in a box."
"And have we not a tea-chest all ready, which howlds it nate, and will not
my friend help me to bring it?"
"Well, mind the hour, and be upon your guard that no one sees you."
The young students who had this conversation with Burke were two men who
afterwards became famous in their profession--Sir William Ferguson,
F.R.S., the author of a _System of Practical Surgery_; and Thos. Wharton
Jones, one of the most eminent physiologists of the country. So that the
training they obtained in these troublous times has proved highly
beneficial to medical science, and through it to humanity.
But to continue the story of the disposal of old Donald's body. Having
come to this agreement with the students, Burke joined his companion, and
went home. They put the body into a sack, and carried it to Surgeons'
Square. When they arrived there they were in doubt as to what they should
do with it. They laid it down at the door of a cellar, and then went to
the room, where they saw the students again. By their instructions they
carried the corpse into the room, took it out of the sack, and placed it
on a dissecting table. A shirt which was on the body they removed at the
request of the students, and Dr. Knox, having examined it, proposed they
should get £7 10s. The money was paid by Jones, Hare receiving £4 5s., and
Burke £3 5s., the paymaster saying he would be glad to see them again when
they had any other body to dispose of. This is Burke's account of the
transaction, as made in his confession on the 3rd January, 1829, and it
substantially agrees with the fuller account given by Leighton.
This was the first transaction these two men had with the doctors, and it
is curious to notice how an incident of so little moment in itself should
be to them the first step in a long and terrible course of crime--long in
the sense that, considering its nature, they should have for such a length
of time kept out of the reach of the law, or, indeed, of any suspicion of
being anything worse than pitiful creatures of resurrectionists, who were
willing to rob graves of their mouldering contents for a few paltry
pounds. That step, however, was enough.