#71599
05/28/2002 3:52 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Fibrebabe’s thread on James Burke under Info’ and Announcements reminded me of the word “burke” and I remembered that there is an interesting story behind it.
Burke (v.t.) – smother, avoid,(publicity, inquiry); hush-up, suppress,(rumour).
The derivation of this is from the name of William Burke who was executed in 1829 for smothering at least 16 people in order to sell their bodies for dissection. He and his partner in crime, William Hare, were Irish labourers living in Edinburgh. They carried out these crimes, possibly together with their common law wives Helen McDougal and Margaret Logue respectively, between mid-November 1827 and Halloween 1828, selling the bodies of their victims to Professor Robert Knox an Edinburgh anatomy instructor. For each body they received eight pounds in the summer and ten pounds in the winter.
The team was eventually caught. Hare, agreeing to give evidence and casting all the blame on the Burkes, was released and wisely disappeared, as did his wife, before the mob could catch them. Whilst Burke was executed, his wife’s guilt was found “not proven” which, I believe, is a verdict unique to Scottish law. Knox had to leave Edinburgh due to a sudden lack of students and finally ended up working in a London cancer hospital.
Ironically, Burke’s body was given up for dissection to another Edinburgh anatomy lecturer named Munro, but during the course of the dissection an angry mob formed and rioting began until a public exhibition of the partly dissected body was allowed, with people shuffling past to view it in the dissecting room.
If you search for “Burke and Hare”, you will easily find a number of sites that give the full dreadful story, including at least one contemporaneous account. On reading the details one realises that it is an amazing example of the depths of depravity to which human beings can sink and it appears to have deeply affected the local population at the time even though they themselves must have been living in miserable conditions and extreme poverty. From the details I conclude that Munro was morally as guilty as the two perpetrators, but there would have been insufficient evidence to bring a charge and obtain a conviction “beyond reasonable doubt”.
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#71600
05/28/2002 8:08 PM
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Hi David, you are set up as "not accepting any private messages" so I'm writing you here instead.
Did I misunderstand something in >>From the details I conclude that Munro was morally as guilty as the two perpetrators Did you mean Knox here?
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Very interesting by the way.
It does niggle at my mind now though. I remember reading a book a few years ago and in it there were these two people that the main character was always catching digging up bodies and I'm pretty sure they were Will and Bill but they were secondary characters. Hmmm, I'll have to try to remember the book. Oddly, I think it was humourous.
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#71601
05/28/2002 8:16 PM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
But it's Saki to me.
(SPLASH!)
TEd
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#71602
05/29/2002 5:53 AM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Did you mean Knox here?
bel, yes you're quite right, I should have said Knox - a slip of the brain I'm afraid!
There was quite a busy illegal traffic at that time in digging up newly buried bodies and selling them. Legally the only bodies that could be used were those of executed criminals but there were not enough to meet the demand. Burke and Hare took the business one step further and the freshness of the bodies they were providing was remarked upon and one or two were even recognised by people within the dissecting theatre, but it is alleged that Knox ensured that the recognisable aspects were the first to be subject to dissection.
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#71603
05/29/2002 3:44 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
smothering at least 16 people in order to sell their bodies for dissection.
Somewhere I've come across a term for people who used to collect, rather than produce, dead bodies for this purpose, but I can't recall it. It's something like "revivers" or perhaps "resurrection men." While they were not looked upon with great esteem, they were at least above murderers in the social structure, and I guess somebody had to do it in the absence of a formal system for donating one's body to science.
Could someone provide the proper word here? Right ho, Jeeves.
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#71604
05/29/2002 3:51 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
term for people who used to collect, rather than produce, dead bodies I think it's resurrectionists. Edward Gorey used in in at least one of his delightful little kiddies' tales. AHD agrees with me. http://www.bartleby.com/61/83/R0188300.html
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#71605
05/29/2002 4:35 PM
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Faldage, thanks for the link to resurrectionist. Strange, I would have guessed the word to refer to members of a religious sect.
dxb
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#71606
05/29/2002 4:35 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
After posting my question, I thought perhaps I should LIU, and I thought I recalled seeing "resurrection man" somewhere. Well, it turns out you need to get through a lot of "resurrection. Man..." references on the holy roller web sites, but I did find this in a discussion page on Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities, where the character Jerry Cruncher is described as a resurrection man, "someone who digs bodies out of their graves and sells them to science laboratories for dissection".
But I'll happily go with Faldage's Bartleby reference and use resurrectionist, especially if the esteemed Ogdred Weary uses that term.
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#71607
05/29/2002 5:01 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
the esteemed Ogdred Weary
It could have been Mr Weary rather than Mr Gorey. I'm sure it wasn't Mrs Regera Dowdy.
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#71608
05/29/2002 5:49 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
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addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
You know, perhaps it was Dogear Wryde I was thinking of.
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#71609
05/29/2002 6:09 PM
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
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#71610
05/29/2002 10:58 PM
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
Coincidentally the title of Ian Rankin's latest book.
www.amazon.co.uk/
exec/obidos/tg/stores/detail/glance/-/gifts/0752821318/
ref=ed_felist_1_4/026-1636861-9658852
(remove blanks to copy and paste)
His previous book, "The Falls" is essential reading for Hogwash fans!
"When a student vanishes in Edinburgh, there is pressure on Rebus to find her, particularly as she is the scion of a family of extremely rich bankers. Needless to say, this is more than just the case of a spoilt rich girl breaking out of the cage of family responsibilities, and a carved wooden doll in a coffin found in her home village leads Rebus to the Internet role-playing game that she was involved in. And when DC Siobhan Clarke, a key member of Rebus' team, tackles the Virtual Quizmaster, Rankin finds himself struggling to save her from the same fate as the missing girl."
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
exec/obidos/ASIN/0752844059/
qid=1022716527/sr=1-1/ref=pd_gex/026-1636861-9658852
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