in some of his remarks contained in the foregoing passage, which we
wholly acquit him of having wilfully misrepresented, as the lawyers
would call it, to bolster up his case. But in the bill alluded to by
Mr. Sleight, and which was known at the time by the name of Warburton's
Body Bill, no price whatever was stipulated at which the body of the
pauper was to be sold. On the contrary, it was to be left to find its
value in the market, according to the plenty or the scarcity of it,
like any other article of trade or commerce. Obnoxious, however, and
repellent to our amiable feelings as the clause of a bill may be,
which not only authorises the sale of the corpse of a pauper, but
actually makes it imperative on the parish authorities to dispose of
the bodies of paupers, for the purpose of dissection, yet when it is
taken into consideration that an antidote has been provided for the
most objectionable part of the bill, by enacting in it that no corpse
of a pauper shall be so disposed of without his previous consent being
obtained during life, or that such corpse be demanded by any relative
or friend, we candidly confess that the indignation manifested by Mr.
Sleight is, in a great degree, groundless, and that he has raised up a
shadow to fight with, which has neither substance nor tangibility.
In regard to the manner in which the bill was smuggled through
the House of Commons, it is impossible to speak of it in terms of
reprobation sufficiently strong. It was, however, one of those _common_
bills, which the faithful representatives of the people were well
convinced had no immediate reference to themselves, as not being likely
to have their bodies sold as paupers from a workhouse, and therefore
the merits or demerits of it were never canvassed, but it was suffered
to steal through the house, whilst the representatives were enjoying
themselves over a chop, and a bottle of Bellamy's _best_.
Mr. Sleight, however, proceeds to argue, 'That the committing of
murder by Burking is horrible, no one will dispute; but its having
occurred is no sound reason why any law should be made to sacrifice the
feelings and sympathies of the poor and unprotected; nor would such a
scheme ever be sanctioned by any christianized or liberal mind, which
considers every man in the light of a brother of immortality, and whose
hopes rest on the faith of the scriptures, that the resurrection of the
body to eternal life will ultimately take place, which any law to sell
dead bodies would be repugnant to, if not entirely subversive of the
belief in the grand doctrine of the Christian system, and which might
lead to every sort of riot and debauchery, to a worse degree than they
now exist, when it might be said in the words of the Apostle, "Let us
eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." Neither is the existence of the
crime of Burking a good ground, that another evil less palpable to the
mind should be legalized to prevent it. Any person, if he possessed the
feelings of a man, would make every exertion to suppress in the most
effectual way, namely, _by discontinuing to dissect the human body_,
if it could not be done but through the aid of so foul a deed, and by
endeavouring to bring to justice the villains who might commit murders
by Burking, as the assistant demonstrator at the King's College, to his
everlasting honour, did.
'As it is a misdemeanour to possess a dead human body, it shews
with what care Englishmen formerly reverenced the mortal remains of
humanity; surely they would have had sense enough to perceive, if, as
it is now asserted, dissections were necessary to qualify for the
profession of surgery or medicine, and the preservation of health in
their days; but as impediments were thrown in the way of the practice
of anatomy, it is clear it was then considered proper to prevent, if
possible, the violating the sanctuary of the dead, though they may now
be called ignorant, prejudiced, &c. Still it may be fairly presumed,
that they had as much common sense as the generation of this period
have, and _I believe they had more_; for it is only since continental
examples, and the pranks of Scotch philosophers have bothered the
brains of Englishmen, that any such thing as legalizing anatomy was
ever thought of, and it is only now intended, in my opinion, to gull
the people into a notion, that unless a surgeon has dissected he is
unable to practise his profession, which an instance or two I shall
relate will show not to be the case.
'The occurrences of Burking in London having produced schemes for
supplying the wants of anatomists by a compulsory appropriation of the
poor, I, as an individual, protest against any law that would inflict
so flagrant an injustice on those, who suffer enough already, without
any further addition.
'A publication has been made of an Anatomy Bill, which I suppose to be
a copy of that which has been brought into the House of Commons this
Session, under the auspices of the same member (Mr. Warburton) who
introduced the former one. In the preamble to this Bill it is asserted,
that the anatomy of the human body is necessary for the remedy of
diseases, and the performance of surgical operations. Now, that this
is unquestionable, some reasonable doubts may be entertained, as I
conceive, that dissections do not confer any extraordinary medical
skill to those who perform them, is proved by all antiquity, from the
days of Adam to the present time, the generations of which, I dare
say, enjoyed quite as good or perhaps better health than modern ones
have done; for if surgery was not practised anciently, how were the
conflicting campaigns of the Grecians, Romans, &c. conducted, when
there must have been surgical aid afforded to the wounded, or who among
them would have engaged in a warfare, when the fracture of a limb
might entail a tedious agony, and loss of life? It is not my object,
however, to go into the nature of diseases or remedies for them here;
but I may instance Hippocrates, the renowned physician of Greece, as to
what he is reported to have known of human anatomy, though his skill
in the treatment of diseases is undisputed; if, therefore, dissecting
dead bodies were necessary, would he have been so eminent for his
attainments, and the first methodical practitioner of medicine? No
such thing; he must have been a mere empiric, and not the ensample of
medical knowledge for every subsequent age. Not to mention professional
quacks, whose factotum medicines, I believe, are never compounded
through their dissecting dead bodies; but which are asserted to be
cures for any disease excepting restoring sight to a blind eye. It is
well known in this town [we believe Mr. Sleight alludes to the town of
Boston in Lincolnshire], that a bone-setter residing in it, who has had
no professional education that I am aware of, is, in cases of simple
or compound fractures and luxated bones, as efficient an operator
as any surgeon, and can as ably effect a cure. As to professional
skill, I recollect it was reported of a medical man having treated a
pregnant woman as dropsical[2]; so much did he know, it appears, about
diseases. Again, in the Encyclopædia Perthensis, it is related, that
a sow-gelder performed a Cesarean operation on his wife with success;
that is, cutting the fœtus from the uterus, which from some impediment
she was unable to give birth to, which operation saved her life. Now,
what sort of an anatomist this sow-gelder was, if the relation be true,
I need not say, as that will occur on the least reflection, but it
shows he had sense enough to perform this most difficult operation,
in a way that not one in a thousand surgeons in country practice, I
believe, would succeed in doing.
'In Cobbett's Register for April, 1829, or something about that period,
a letter appeared under the signature of W. Hornsey, M.D. North
Shields, on the subject of the infamous body-selling Bill, which, from
what I can now recollect of its contents, strongly disapproved of that
measure, and stated how little the pursuit of anatomy had improved
the treatment of diseases, especially that of consumption. This is
corroborated from the hubbub about the cholera morbus, as if it were a
complaint that had never appeared in the world till just now, though
it is well known to be a disease that has infested India for ages,
and if it were of the pestilential character attributed to it, would
have swept away the natives of that part of the universe from the face
of the earth ages ago, nor should we witness now shoals of Europeans
flocking thither to make their fortunes, if setting foot on Asiatic
soil was next to instant death; nor is its progress in England any
credit to the medical profession, some of whom are evidently grasping
at it as a god send to benefit the faculty, by frightening the public
out of their wits, and setting in action the machinery of Boards of
Health, some of the members of which may know as much about cholera
morbus, as the Chinese of Scotch philosophy. Pshaw! doctors of the
north, with all your dissecting--cannot you control Nature's volcano,
nor grapple with diarrhœa, puking and spasms, either of which you would
be ashamed to allow it to appear you could not treat efficiently, if
Nature had any strength. It seems, that part first of the cholera
morbus farce has concluded at Sunderland, and the Board of Health
dissolved. But why so, good ex-members of it? Is not _health_ still to
be dispensed, or has disease wholly vanished through your exertions?
Happy must the people of Sunderland be, with such a miraculous
invention as "A Board of Health," which throws the miracle-working
German prince into the shade, and I suppose gives a hope, that the
greatest of all the blessings of human life, an exemption from disease,
are thus to be obtained! What need have we of anatomy or physic, when
Boards of Health can be formed, and able to root out of the systems of
mankind the horror of horrors, "_Cholera Morbus!_"'
We admit that the foregoing remarks have no immediate relevancy to
the subject under our discussion; but on the other hand, we consider
that no opportunity ought to be allowed to escape, by which one of
the greatest and most prejudicial deceptions that has been practised
upon the country, can be exposed in all its noxious and alarming
consequences. If the cholera morbus question were confined, simply as
a bugbear, to frighten a score of silly nervous people, it might pass
over as wholly unworthy of any attention, and be suffered to live as
long as a few unprincipled empirics found it their interests to keep it
alive; but when it becomes a question, on which the actual welfare of
the country rests, on which the ruin of thousands is made to depend;
by which commerce is thrown into a state of stagnation, and the usual
channels of industry so choked up, that misery and want stare us in
the face, whithersoever we turn our eyes, and which are in themselves
sufficient actually to produce, and to aggravate the very disease,
which the sapient heads of the Board of Health have distinguished by
the name of the cholera morbus--then it becomes the duty of every man,
to use every exertion in his power to check the growing evil, to expose
the infamous and selfish views of the propagators of the bugbear, and
then leave them to the contempt and indignation of an offended and
injured country. We should be justly accused of digression, were we
here to enter into any further exposition of this subject; but we do
hope that some spirited individuals will seriously and patriotically
take up the matter, and so bring the unprincipled abettors of the
cholera morbus plague before the tribunals of their country, that
they themselves may no longer be allowed to be a plague, and that the
_heads_ of the heads of the Boards of Health may be consigned over to
the executioner of Newgate, to be dealt with by him as seemeth best in
his eyes.
'There is no occasion in my opinion,' Mr. Sleight proceeds, 'to argue
for human bodies being hacked, and cut up piecemeal for students'
improvement; as the carcasses and extremities of old horses, cows,
bulls, &c., would do quite as well, for familiarizing them to the use
of the knife in operations, which I believe to be the principal object;
as well as those of sheep, dogs, cats, rabbits, monkeys, &c., are
sufficient for demonstrating the action and economy of Nature, as its
principles are the same in the human and the brute creation,--as to the
pulsation of the heart, the circulation of the blood, nervous system,
&c., which for illustrating physiology would be quite sufficient; but,
if anatomists are determined to have none other than human subjects,
they and their pupils should be sent to the Sierra Leone settlement,
where they might perhaps obtain them in abundance, and very cheap. Of
all the world, this is the most proper place to locate the anatomical
departments of the Scotch London University, King's College, and
dissecting-schools; for at this pestilential place medical students
would have to endeavour to preserve their own health, and I believe
have to search more into the principles of sound medical treatment of
diseases than they do in England; and thus be really useful in the
cause of humanity to those of their fellow men, who are resident in
that abode of death, as well as be prepared to cure diseases in a more
skilful way than by the regimen of 'Buchan's Domestic Medicine,' which
I once saw on a newly-commenced practitioner's table in a country
village, a copy of which I bought for three shillings. As to replacing
dislocated joints, there is not a tinker more bungling at mending a
kettle, than some professional men are at setting them; nor is there a
student who has passed his examinations, and is authorized to practise,
who could use a knife, in the difficult case I have before mentioned,
equal to the sow-gelder, but who if he attempted it, his hair would I
dare say stand as erect as the quills of the fretful porcupine.
'The more dissections which students perform, can never make them
expert operators, in cases of extracting a stone from the bladder,
reducing a hernia with a knife, or cutting off a limb of a living
subject; as their operations require, to become skilful at them, a more
frequent practice than occurs in the course of a country surgeon's
business, and when any do arise, the anxiety of the operator and array
of professional attendance show what little confidence there is of
success.
'The provisions of the "Anatomy Bill," as to an appropriation of
subjects for dissection being _voluntary_ is very proper, as any
attempt to make a compulsory one would be sure to fail; for those of
the community who see a necessity for anatomical study being prosecuted
by the use of the knife on human dead bodies, might by bequeathing
their mortal remains when dead, as it is to be expected the members of
the medical profession, would be the first to volunteer, afford such
a supply of subjects as would be sufficient for the London anatomical
schools; this being extended to country towns is quite out of the
question, as I believe they would not be endured. So incensed would
the public be against them, if subjects were forcibly furnished,
that they would be upset very quickly, unless guarded by a park of
artillery, but a dissecting practitioner of medicine would soon find
his loss in the account of business, as many poor persons, I conceive,
would rather suffer all that the pains of disease could inflict,
than that their earthly remains should be compulsorily consigned
to the dissecting-knife, for a little medicine. Vulgar prejudice
cannot be pleaded as an impediment to those persons who think anatomy
is necessary in promoting surgical skill, as no soul possessed of
human feelings in any degree, would ever think of grasping, for
anatomization, an individual who was averse from dissection, and
selfishly reserve his body from the dissecting-knife, and allow the
science of anatomy, so far as his good will to promote it extended,
to go to the d--l; though this is precisely, I believe, the character
of Scotch philosophy, to make anything subservient to its purpose,
but is not disposed to make any sacrifice. I apprehend it is none but
Scotch writers who, however intellectual or educated they may be, have
had the insolence to invent the phrase, and call the aversion of the
poor from dissection "a vulgar prejudice," and only select them as
subjects for anatomists, as they have done to find out that the vitals
of English labourers should be wasted by law and Gospel in providing
means for sinecurists and titled pensioners to subsist on. Peasantry,
indeed! They are not shot at like game, certainly; but if they can be
induced to submit to be made brutes of, there seems to be no want of
inclination in Scotch philosophy that they should; for so transfused
does this villainous idea appear to be into the minds of some reading
Englishmen, of "higher orders, lower orders, vulgar prejudice," &c.,
that a stupid fellow that I heard talking on the subject of Burking,
who appeared to be what is called a gentleman farmer, said it was only
from vulgar prejudice that the poor objected to be dissected; but
when he was asked if he should like for his wife and daughter to be
anatomized, he became silent, and stared as if he had been a Burked
subject revived.
'The feelings which Britons have hitherto entertained, I hope will
never be suppressed by a beastly indifference towards the disposing
of the remains of the dead, to be cut up by beardless students, for
the benefit of an anatomist's pocket, or to see, as I once heard one
say, what _guts_, as he expressed it, are made of. The Anatomy Bill,
however, will not, if it should become law, be what anatomists want,
which is, subjects fresh, cheap, and by wholesale; though voluntarily
this will never be the case, and is rather to prevent bodies being
dissected which are murdered, by causing a certificate from a medical
man--but I think any relative would be better--that the person deceased
had died a natural death; for any one, unless he be an idiot, can know
this as well as a doctor; and which, I propose, should also distinctly
state the consent of the person it might refer to, that his or her
body, when dead, should be dissected; though, except repealing so much
of former enactments as to the illegality of possessing a dead human
body, this bill, in my view, will not facilitate anatomical study by
dissection, but otherwise, as it appears that bodies of murderers are
to be interred at a cross highway, instead of being dissected, which
has been considered a proper part of the punishment for that crime.
'The Creator of the universe and Father of mankind, under whose
peculiar care the Israelites were, gave no direction to Moses relative
to any dissection of them; whose infinite wisdom gave the almighty
fiat, 'Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return,' and which has
been responded in all ages, in the respect paid to the remains of
departed life, and will continue to be so, as long as the feelings of
human nature remain what they have been. Notwithstanding the discovery
of Scotchmen, that it is only a vulgar prejudice, there have none
come forward to authorise their brawny bodies to be dissected, nor
ever will, so long as a parliament would create a law appropriating
the poor. However, it would only be proper that any legislation
compulsorily providing human subjects for dissection should be reserved
for a reformed parliament, and let the country see how it will deal
with the matter. But, come what may, it would be better that practical
human anatomy should altogether cease; and rather would I see it to be
the case, than that the feelings of the poor and friendless should be
outraged, and they so degraded as to be reduced to a level with brutes;
as ages after ages show that mankind can exist, and have existed
equally as well as they do now, where anatomy was not practised at all,
or even thought of, and that, too, in a period when the baiting a bull
is considered as repugnant to humanity, and the thrashing of a horse or
ass punished by fine or imprisonment.
'In concluding these brief reflections, I have just to observe, as to a
publication purporting to be a memorial from the Council of the Royal
College of Surgeons, (a pompous title truly!) to the Home Secretary
of State, that it is sickening to read such a whining inuendo to his
Majesty's government to make a dead body law; though I would say to
those who appear to have signed it, never mind continental examples, of
which we see enough of the evil of copying in the beggarly condition of
the working people, and an enormous national debt, &c., &c., to wish
to imitate their brutal apathy to anatomy, or having our bodies sold
for six or eight shillings a piece, as at Paris, but to make shorter
work of it by proffering yourselves for dissection when departed this
life, which, as a proof of your sincerity, will be worth a thousand
stupid arguments; and this will be the way that I and hundreds more can
only judge how far a necessity for the anatomy of the dead human body
exists in your opinion, for while _you_ keep aloof, how do you ever
think that England will submit to be made subservient to the promoting
of anatomical science, when those of the surgical profession, who are
to be _sovereignly_ benefited by it, wriggle and twist, argue and
assert, rather than come to the practical point of showing example is
better than precept. If students want subjects, get the carcasses of
cattle for them, especially _calves_ and _asses_, to cut up, and I'll
warrant they will make just as good surgeons as if they had cut up
human bodies; for, however they may smatter over descriptive anatomy at
their examinations, they know as little about it a year after as the
man in the moon; but if Englishmen will shut their eyes and open their
mouths to swallow anything, and put an enemy in their skull to steal
away their brains, why so be it, though I hope never to see this to be
the case so long as I live; still nothing shall be wanting in my power
to prevent it,'