know--I wish to speak the truth. She went on to say, that her father
(meaning Bishop, but there must be here some mistake in the report,
for Mrs. Williams is the sister of Bishop, not his daughter) called
her up on Sunday morning at six o'clock, about six or seven weeks ago.
They were then living at No. 3, Nova Scotia gardens. He asked her if
she would carry a bandbox for him; she asked in reply, where did he
want her to take it? He replied to the Borough. She then went along
with Bishop, her husband and Shields over London bridge, and when they
got a little way over the bridge they came to a public-house, and
Bishop told her to go in there and wait until they returned. They came
again in about half an hour, and then they went together to another
public-house, and had a pot of half and half, and some pipes. There
was no money to pay the reckoning, and her father left her there, and
told her to stop until he should return. He came back and paid for the
beer, and then they all went to Bishopsgate-street, and called for some
gin in a public house there. Shields then left Bishop, her husband and
herself, and, after that, they all went home together. The prisoner
added, that is all I wish to say. I have nothing more to add.
Mr. MINSHULL.--It will be my duty to commit you for further examination
upon this charge, to this day fortnight.
Mr. THOMAS said, he thought he should be able to produce further
evidence in a week.
Mr. MINSHULL.--Then let the re-examination of the prisoner stand for
this day week. As the prisoner was about to be removed, Mr. Thomas
said, he believed she had not had any food that day, and as she was now
about to leave his custody, he hoped that she would be allowed some
refreshment.
Mr. MINSHULL.--Most certainly; the jailer shall provide her with what
is necessary. No prisoner shall want food, whilst I sit here as a
magistrate.
The prisoner was then removed in custody.
While these proceedings were carrying on, the public alarm was
increasing in every direction; the medical profession was visited with
the most severe, and we think, unjust indignation, inasmuch as it was
believed to be the secret encourager of a system by which human life
was sacrificed with the most heartless indifference, and the detection
of the crime became a matter of extreme difficulty, almost amounting
to impossibility, on account of the secrecy with which the proceedings
are carried on in the hospitals and the private dissecting-rooms. It
is at once evident that, from the present mode of supplying subjects
for dissection, no man's life is secure. The murderer may disguise his
victim by laying out, and for a time burying the corpse, by cutting off
the hair, or by knocking out the teeth, and then his market is as safe
as it is sure; or, if the assassin be more timid than usual, he has
only to dismember the subject, and the sale by piecemeal will turn in
an equal profit, and defy detection.
This is a state of danger to the public, the toleration of which would
be criminal. The medical profession must arouse from its equivocal
silence, and take such measures as may prevent its being, in a
secondary sense, accessary to murder.
That the medical profession feel sore at the imputations which are cast
upon them is not to be wondered at, and they very industriously throw
the blame upon the existing laws, which, on account of their pretended
impolicy, are themselves the cause of the different murders which have
been committed, for the purpose of supplying the anatomical schools
with subjects for the pupil. Thus Dr. Southwood Smith, in concluding
that branch of his lectures on forensic medicine, which includes the
extinction of life by intentional human agency, and illustrating the
several points which demand the attention of the medical witness, on
the examination of the body after death, from poisoning, drowning,
hanging, strangulation, bruises and wounds, adverted to the real
position in which the medical profession and the public are placed by
the present state of the law relative to the study of anatomy, and
after drawing a strong picture of the consequences that would result
to the community, from the general neglect of this pursuit by the
profession, spoke nearly as follows:--
'You dare not practise without a knowledge of anatomy,--you cannot
prescribe for a patient, you cannot undertake the management of any
surgical or medical case without a direct violation of the law, until
you have adduced, before legally appointed authorities, evidence that
you have studied anatomy with such effect, as to be able to stand a
searching examination. But the same law that makes it imperative on you
to study anatomy, in order to acquire a legal right to practise your
profession, renders the possession of the means of pursuing the study
illegal. Human anatomy cannot be known without the dissection of the
human body, yet the possession of a body that has been exhumed, for
the purpose of dissection (no body except that of the murderer being
obtainable in any other mode) is penal. So that you are to be punished
for not conforming to a law, which you cannot qualify yourself for
obeying without breaking! Did ever any civilized country witness such
a situation as that in which the law has placed you and the public?
It has contrived to raise the price of a dead body to such a height,
as absolutely and appallingly to endanger the safety of the living.
Of this danger, both the public and the legislature have been long
and earnestly warned. Several years ago, before any instance of the
actual perpetration of the crime had been discovered, the temptation
and the consequent danger were fully brought to view in a pamphlet,
entitled "The Use of the Dead to the Living." Investigation was set
on foot, a parliamentary inquiry was obtained, the medical profession
performed its duty in the fullest manner, and stated, without reserve,
all the odiousness and all the danger of exhumation. It laid open the
true character of the hardened and the desperate men engaged in this
employment. It had not yet occurred to those men, that it might be more
easy to murder the living than disturb the dead, but the possibility
of the occurrence of such a thought, and the probability of their
acting upon it, were distinctly foretold. Over and over again it was
stated, that the price always to be obtained for a subject, from
ten to fifteen guineas, was a temptation to murder not likely to be
resisted, and with an earnest voice the profession implored that this
risk might be no longer incurred. The administration was impressed--the
public was excited--something was promised--a little was attempted,
but nothing was done. Then came on the Edinburgh horrors; and now we
are thrown into a state of intense alarm, lest the same horrors should
be perpetrated, and are perpetrating, at our own doors. And knowing
this, it is said, it behoves the teacher and the medical profession in
general to be extremely cautious, to examine with the utmost vigilance,
whether any thing suspicious appear, and if it do, to investigate it
to the bottom; and that it is now become an imperative duty, there can
be no more question than there can be that it will be faithfully and
rigidly observed in all schools, and throughout the profession. But
when you come seriously to consider what it is in the power of the
anatomist and physiologist to do--when, from the preceding statements,
you see the utmost they can do, the truth is not more true than it is
dreadful. If then it be made worth while to pursue murder as a trade,
it can be carried on to a prodigious extent without detection. But
men, even the desperate men, called body-snatchers, will not murder
without a motive; but they will murder upon system, and to an extent
to which no limit can be fixed, if the temptation be great, and the
chance of escape considerable. It is in vain to look for protection to
the law--no law can restrain them; no punishment will deter them:--the
only effectual remedy is the removal of the temptation, the taking
away of the motive, by rendering the dead body so cheap, as to be
in fact without value as an article of sale; and the mode of doing
this is simple. All that is necessary is, to repeal the existing law,
which renders it illegal to possess a dead body for the purpose of
dissection; and to enact a law, rendering the possession of a body
for the purpose legal. Every thing would then be accomplished without
exhumation, without danger, without any feeling being shocked, without
any injury or indignity being done to any human creature. Those who
from ignorance or childish prejudice--prejudice now confined to the
highest and the lowest vulgar, raise a clamour against this and all
similar expedients--assist and aid every future murder of this kind
that may be committed, as really, though not as intentionally, as
though they assisted at the strangulation.'
On this highly-interesting subject, and which now embraces the
attention of all ranks of the community, we shall not be accused
of diffuseness in giving the sentiments of another most celebrated
surgeon, especially as many hints are there thrown out, by which the
present system of obtaining dead bodies may altogether be exploded.
Mr. Brodie (for we ascribe the following remarks to him, although
he has not affixed his name to them) says, 'Such is the importance
of anatomy, that those who are engaged in the study of medicine and
surgery will always endeavour to learn it, as far as it lies in their
power to do so; and if subjects for dissection cannot be procured
by decent and legal means, they will be procured by means that are
indecent and illegal. The present system of procuring them by the
robbery of churchyards, is attended with very great mischief in
various ways. It disgusts and alarms not only the surviving friends,
but the whole of society. Some are rendered miserable, because they
know that the bodies of their friends have been stolen from the grave,
and carried to the dissecting-room; and others, because they are
apprehensive that the bodies of their friends may be served in the
same manner. The men who are employed to exhume bodies are of the very
worst description; they are outcasts of society, who being pointed at
as resurrection-men, are unable to maintain themselves by any honest
employment; and are thus driven to become thieves and house-breakers,
because, when not actually employed in stealing bodies, they can do
nothing better.
'The price of subjects at this moment is as high as eight, ten, or
twelve guineas, and it has been as high as fifteen guineas. But many
a person has been murdered for a much smaller sum than the least of
these. Here then is an inducement to commit actual murder; and in
addition to the mere gain, there is this further inducement, namely,
that the murder is committed under circumstances peculiarly calculated
to effect its concealment: as the bodies in the dissecting-room soon
become disfigured, so that they cannot be recognized, it is not to
be supposed that the teachers of anatomy, except under peculiar
circumstances, can distinguish the bodies of those who die a natural
death. It may be observed further, that it is impossible for the
teachers to spare, from their other occupations, the time necessary to
make an accurate examination of each individual subject that is brought
into the dissecting-room, and that if such examinations were made, they
would have the effect of preventing the students making some of the
most important and useful dissections afterwards. The subjects must be
handed over to the students untouched; the teachers and senior students
may and ought to be as vigilant as possible, but it is equally absurd
and unjust to suppose, that an absolute responsibility can rest upon
them.
'The commission of murder for the purpose of obtaining subjects for
the anatomical schools, is now found to be no imaginary evil. But the
public need not be surprised that it has occurred. It has been foreseen
by medical men, whose attention has been directed to these inquiries
for some years, and the danger has been long ago pointed out to many
members of the legislature; nor can all the activity of the police, nor
all the watchfulness of the teachers of anatomy, prevent it recurring
some time or other, if there be no easier method of supplying
subjects for dissection, than that which is now resorted to, and if
they continue, in consequence, to produce the enormous sum which they
produce at present.
'One effect of the existing difficulty of procuring subjects in this
country is, that a large proportion of medical students visit the
Continent, and reside in Paris, or elsewhere, for the purpose of
dissection. It may not be very creditable to us as a nation, that we
should not possess among ourselves the means of instruction in so
important a branch of knowledge as anatomy; but there is another and
a stronger reason for lamenting the emigration of medical students.
There is no class of society, in whose honour and integrity, and good
principles, the public are so deeply interested, as in those of the
medical profession. The members of it are admitted to a degree of
confidence which is not given to any other individuals; circumstances
are of necessity made known to them, which are not intended for the
world, and the disclosure of which would, in many instances, destroy
the peace of a family. They visit their fellow-creatures, labouring
not only under the bodily, but the mental weakness of disease, and a
depraved or dishonest person will easily convert those opportunities
to some base purpose of self-advancement or self-gratification. We
need not insult our neighbours by asserting that there is more vice in
Paris than in London. Be that as it may, there is still good reason
to suppose, that a number of young Englishmen are more likely to fall
into vicious and dissipated habits in the former city than in the
latter. Even if their parents reside in a distant county, they have
in all probability relations, and at any rate they have acquaintance
in London, and while in London, they are in constant communication
with their families in the country, and they are in a greater or
less degree under the _surveillance_ of their friends. But while they
reside in Paris, these restraints are removed; they are left entirely
to themselves, and that at a period of life when temptations are new
to them, when their passions are strong, and when good counsel and
good example are of more importance than at any other period, either
earlier or later. Can any one regard this as a favourable condition
for young men, who, in the subsequent part of life, are to have such
trust reposed in them, as necessarily must be reposed in medical
practitioners?
'Anatomical knowledge is necessary to a right understanding both of
medicine and surgery. But the law declares that the having a dead body
in your possession is a misdemeanour; and the judges lay it down as
a maxim, that there is only one legal way of possessing a body for
dissection, namely, by procuring that of a man hanged for murder. The
anatomical students are compelled to deal with people who steal bodies
from churchyards, and who are liable to be punished for so doing. But
the College of Physicians, the College of Surgeons, and the Company
of Apothecaries, all require that those who present themselves for
examination, should have attended anatomical lectures, and should
have performed dissections. Thus it appears, that the laws forbid
the student to dissect, and the constituted authorities, under the
sanction of the laws, require that he should dissect. The medical
student, in the first instance, is persecuted on account of his
endeavours to obtain knowledge; and afterwards, when he is engaged in
practice, he is persecuted for not having obtained it, and, to make the
inconsistency still greater, there is not an individual amongst those
who make the laws, nor amongst those by whom they are administered,
who hesitates, when his life is in danger, to apply for assistance to
those individuals, who would not have it in their power to relieve him,
if they had not devoted a considerable portion of their lives to these
forbidden studies.
'But it is to no purpose to point out the evils which exist, unless it
can be shown at the same time that those evils admit of being removed.
The next question then is, how can a more abundant supply of subjects
be procured, in a manner less offensive to the community?
'As the laws are now construed by the law authorities, the possession
of a body for the purpose of dissection, is in itself a misdemeanour,
except it be that of a person hanged for murder. The first thing
then to be done, is to declare, by an act of the legislature, that
dissection, for the purpose of procuring knowledge, that may be useful
in medicine and surgery, is legal and proper.
'2. That a dead body should be dissected, is of no consequence to
the individual who is no more, but a knowledge of it being so may be
distressing to the feelings of the sorrowing friends and relations.
'This sufficiently points out what are the proper subjects for
dissection; namely, the bodies of those who die without any friends
or relations. In small towns and villages, probably, there are none
who die under those circumstances; but in large cities, and especially
in the metropolis, there are a great number. Whoever will take the
trouble of referring to the Anatomical Committee, will find that, in
London, the number of those amount to many more than would be required
for the supply of all the anatomical schools. These bodies are now
buried at the expense of the public; and, if authorised to do so, the
churchwardens and overseers would, in most instances, readily give them
up to the teachers of anatomy.
'But it may be argued, in opposition to the adoption of the plan
proposed, that it may be considered as a very harsh and arbitrary
measure on the part of the legislature to point out any particular
class of society as furnishing subjects for dissection, while the other
classes are exempt. This objection relates, of course, not to the sense
and deliberate judgment, but to the feelings of the public; and it is
easily answered. Let it be declared, not who are, but who are not to
be dissected. Let it be enacted that dissection is lawful, but that no
one is to be dissected contrary to the wishes of his friends or nearest
relations. The result will be the same, but the offence to the public
feeling, in this last case, will be none at all.
'It may be said also, that there are some individuals who have a horror
at being dissected after death, and that it will sometimes happen that
a poor man, dying in a workhouse, with no friends around him, will have
his sufferings much aggravated, if he believes that his helpless and
friendless condition is to lead, as soon as he has breathed his last,
to his body being conveyed to an anatomical school. Undoubtedly such
feelings ought to be respected. It would be cruel to disregard them;
and it is very easy to meet the objection which arises out of them.
Let it be declared further, that no one is to be made the subject of
dissection who has declared, by his last will and testament, his wish
to the contrary.
'Again--it may be considered as wrong, on religious grounds, that any
individual should be denied the act of sepulture, and the performance
of the funeral service after death. It may be answered to this
objection, indeed, that these are mere human institutions, concerning
which not one word is said in the Old and New Testament. But there is
no occasion to meet it thus. After the body has been dissected, let
the remains be inclosed in a coffin, and conveyed to the grave in the
usual manner, and with the usual ceremonies; or the funeral service may
be read over it previous to dissection.
'There may be some who will, probably, still urge another objection;
namely, that the public feeling is so strongly opposed to dissection,
and that the lower orders especially are so much prejudiced against
it, that a general clamour will be raised if there be any kind of
legislation on the subject. But those who argue thus, must have formed
their opinions on what they have heard and seen in the country, in
villages, and the smaller provincial towns, and can know little of
the state of feeling in the larger towns, and especially in London.
The fact is, that in London there is no horror of dissection in the
abstract. The thing has, in some measure, become familiar to the minds
of the inhabitants, and especially of those who belong to the lower
orders. Persons who reside in the neighbourhood of an anatomical
theatre, continually see boxes and hampers taken into it, which they
know to contain subjects for dissection; and such an occurrence
scarcely causes an observation among them. It is only when the bodies
of their friends and relatives are exhumed and dissected, that their
feelings are excited; and, instead of being excited further, these
feelings are likely to be allayed by the adoption of a plan for
dissection of the unclaimed bodies, inasmuch as it would put a stop to
the present traffic with the resurrection-men, and the robbery of the
churchyards.
'Nor is the plan proposed to be regarded in the light of a mere
experiment. It has been already tried in most parts of the continent
of Europe, in Protestant countries as well as Catholic, and it has
succeeded perfectly. And surely there is no such peculiarity in the
English nation as ought to lead us to believe that that which has
succeeded in nations so different as the French and Prussians, the
Dutch and the Italians, would not succeed in England also.
'Of course these observations are founded on the supposition that
dissection is carried on in a discreet and decent manner; and if it
should be recognized by law, and a more abundant supply of subjects
should be procured under the sanction of the state, some precautions
may be necessary to prevent the evil which would arise from its being
too openly practised, or being brought under the notice of the public
in a disgusting or offensive shape. It will not be unreasonable to
require of the teachers of anatomy that they should preserve a register
of all the bodies which they receive for dissection, naming the source
from whence they are obtained. It may be proper, on all accounts,
to insist that those who undertake to be teachers of anatomy should
prove their fitness for the office, by passing a rigid examination
before the College of Surgeons of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, or
some other competent tribunal. This will, at any rate, limit the
number of anatomical teachers in the best possible manner, namely, by
the exclusion of uneducated and ignorant pretenders, and by confining
this department of medical instruction to men of industry and science.
It may be admitted as a question also, whether, in addition to these
measures, it will not be advisable to insist that no one should be
permitted to open dissecting-rooms for the admission of students,
without a license to do so from the Secretary of State, or from some
person specially appointed for the purpose, to whom a satisfactory
security must be given for the proper regulation and conduct of the
establishment.
'Of the foregoing observations, there are, probably, very few which
have a claim to the merit of originality; the subject having been so
frequently discussed, especially among medical practitioners, with
whom the present obstacles to anatomical instruction have long been a
subject of serious anxiety.