J 827.] On the Pleasures of Body-Snatching. 36 1 



The squires unsophisticated souls ! laughed still louder at this stroke of 



humour; and S having the good sense to confess his ignorance of 



equestrian performances, and to meet their jokes on the subject half \vay, 

 got off with flying colours. Soon after, he married the girl, and returned 

 to London. His quickness of mind was frequently attended with too 

 much quickness of to ague a fault which a medical man cannot guard too 

 carefully against. Once, when passing arm-in-arm with him along some 

 street near St. Thomas's Hospital, " Gadso !" said he ; " we should not 

 have come this way I have a patient dead here ; I told his wife, yester- 

 day morning, that he would never eat his breakfast again in this world. 

 Hollo !" continued ho, catching by the rails with one hand as he passed 

 the house, " Mrs. Tibbs or Tibbetts how d'ye do ? how d'ye do?" 

 (as the woman made her appearance at the window) " nothing wrong, 

 eh.-*" " O no, Sir! thank God, and had luck to yourself!" answered 



Mrs. Tibbs or Tibbetts ; " my husband is much better to-day." S 



blushed to the tips of his ears, and went into the house, muttering, " Never 

 was mistaken before in all my life!" When he came out egain, I said to 

 him, laughing, " Well, doctor, I hope you have killed your man for 

 living contrary to orders!" " I had thoughts of it," said he, with gravity; 



" but that brimstone b , his wife, will punish him as severely here as 



the furies could below : I have cared for him he will not die this bout." 

 A few days after, happening to go the same way together, we chanced 

 to pass the house at the very instant a man was mounting the steps with 



a coffin on his shoulder. S ducked his head, and walked quietly 



past but not without being caught by the lynx-eye of Mrs. Tibbs, or 

 Tibbetts. I could see her endeavouring to raise the window ; failing in 

 which, she darted her clenched fist like lightning through the glass, and 

 shook it violently at the false prophet. S never forgave me for wit- 

 nessing this scene. I called on him twice: the first time, he was riot at 

 home ; and the second, at which I received the same answer, I saw him 

 looking at me through the blinds. I made him a low bow, and passed on. 

 He is dead lately ; I forgive him for cutting me but he should not have 

 looked through the blinds. 



At this time, there was established a society of Resurrectionists, con- 

 sisting chiefly of young surgeons and students of anatomy of which, of 

 course, I became a fellow. Some of these gentlemen have since risen to 

 notoriety in their own and other congenial professions ; but the most dis- 

 tinguished members, at the period I speak of (not to mention myself), were 



Messrs. P , R , C , and M . On second thoughts, I 



may as well fill out the two last initials Clark and Malony both being 

 public characters ; particularly the latter, who is himself " among the 

 atomies at Surgeons' Hall" at this moment. He was a red-hot Irish stu- 

 dent, and a fellow of fine talents in his degree. Once, when a subject for 

 dissection had been brought up in the common hum-drum way I mean 

 from the gallows and Malony, myself, and other eminent persons were 

 present when every thing was ready, and every body on the tip-toe of 

 expectation a sudden inflation of the subject's chest " gave us pause." 

 " O Jasus !" cried Malony who was not a man to stick at trifles, when 

 the interests of science were concerned " is it after chating the law he 

 is ?" and immediately thrust a probe into the temple far enough to set the 

 question of vitality at rest. Some people took it upon thorn to blame the 

 Irishman for his precipitation ; but I beg leave to differ with them. The 

 naan was dead in law, and that was enough for us: besides, if we had 

 M. M. New Series.^ 7 OL. III. No. 16. 3 A 



