54 II~ISH JOUI~NAL OF MEDICAL SCIENCE

of 312 bodies during the prcceding winter session, for which labour they reaped the reward of nearly s These nocturnal " fishermen " had a curious slang of their own: a burial ground to be plundered was known as a '~ hospital crib," a " small " was a body less than three feet long; these were sold at so much pc1 inch, and were classed as " l a rge small," " small," and " foetus." " Working a hole " or " opening the crib " are self-explanatory terms. The means by which the task was accompIished was one of the mysteries of their craft and was never divulged by any of them to the public. A certain honour is prevalent amongst thieves, even though they should be " the lowest dregs of degrada- t ion," as S i r Astley Cooper described them. No man knew them better, their crimes, their habits, their venality. He knew also their determination and his own prestige amongst them. " There is no person," he stated to the Parliamentary Committee, " l e t hiJ situation in life be what it may, whom, if I were disposed to dissect, I could not obtain. The law only enhances the price, and does not prevent the exhumation." Parliamentary evidence has rarely been more forthright.

Why was there such delay in legalising dissection after t h e Burke and Hare exposures? The teachers earnestly desired i t : the more enlightened politicians favoured the idea; but the grea~ obstac!e was the prejudice of the people against the anatomists, \u th e English Home Secretary, _~ntroduced an Anatomy Bill into the House of Commons in March, 1829, but when intro- duced into the House of Lords, the opposition, headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, was sufflcient]y strong as to cause its withdrawal. Prejudice and ignorance were not confined to the

Three years later three Resurrection-men--Bishop, Williams and May~were tr ied at the Old Bailey in London for the murder of a boy of fourteen years, whose body they had attempted to sell to the anatomists at King's College. They were found guilty; Bishop a~d Williams �9 executed, but May was respited, and sentenced to transportation for life. The necessary shock was forthcoming. The murder of an unknown Italian lad, almost at the very gates of Westminster, succeeded in awakening the legislators of both houses from an apathy from which the plea~ of the teachers, the exposures in the lay press and the vitriolic pen of Thomas ~Vakley had failed to stir them. %Vith the passage of Warburton's second Anatomy Act (1832) the days of the Resurrection-men were over. Their vocation, evil as it had been, was no longer a necessity.

FRENCH CONGRESS OF MEDICINE, ]929.

The 20f, h French Congress of Medicine will be held at Montpel!ier, under %he Presidency of Prof. Vedel, during the second half of October, 1929. The subjects for discussion include sca.rlatina, hypotension and the treat~ ment of the anmmias.