340 Report from the Dissection Committee. [Ocr. 
with the Custom-house was, that I should personally superintend, in 
order to prevent the privilege from being converted into a means of 
smuggling. Accordingly, when a vessel arrived, having packages with 
certain marks, they were claimed by me, and delivered on my responsi- 
bility. Every facility was afforded by the Secretary of State and the 
Custom-house officers; yet the experiment, though tried very exten- 
sively, was a complete failure.” But the main cause of failure in this 
case appears to have been the interference of the police ; and marvellous 
it must surely seem, that the Secretary of State should silence the autho- 
rities at the Custom-house, and not give the Police a hint—the most piti- 
ful sort of half-measure that ever was heard of ! 
There is good reason to believe, that of the bodies used in London 
and Scotland for the last two years, a considerable portion came from 
Dublin ; but the extent, or the carelessness, with which exportation has 
been conducted, has stirred up the popular feeling even there, and sub- 
jects are obtained with difficulty now for the native schools. A report 
spread, that children were kidnapped for the purpose of dissection ; and 
so currently credited was this report, that it was necessary to protect 
one of the anatomical schools for nearly a week, by means of the police. 
The notion was, they were to be sent to Scotland or England by the 
steam vessels. The winter dissections could not be completed.. “ The 
people frequently of late,’’ says Dr. Macartney, “assault the resurrection- 
men; one of them died in consequence of the rough handling he met 
with, and another from being whipped with a cat-o’-nine-tails made of 
wire, and others were thrown into the water. I may add,” he continues, 
‘« that lately also, even medical men and medical students were assailed 
by the people; and that at present, the resurrection-men go to a great 
number of grave-yards, some distance from Dublin, provided with fire- 
arms, and are accompanied frequently by several students armed in the 
same manner.” In France, too, the law expressly forbids exportation, 
and of course none can come but such as are smuggled ; and fresh 
obstacles are continually thrown in the way—not to say that subjects, 
even for native professors at Paris, are diminishing every day, from the 
activity of the priests, who are as hostile to dissections as they were in 
days of yore. 
Such, then, is the actual state of things—that, though in spite of all 
difficulties, bodies are still obtained by exhumation, the hazard increases 
daily —the public exasperation still embitters, and the supply must con- 
sequently grow less and less. For the remedy of this growing defi- 
ciency, notwithstanding, some would have us simply retrace our steps— 
only be quiet, and prejudices must subside again. It is suggested, that, 
as the government has already interfered so far as to remove obstruc- 
tions at the ports, so the magistrates, with or without authority, might 
repress officiousness, and leave the anatomists, and the persons they 
employ, to conflict with the public odium as well as they can. A great 
part of the general indignation, it is said, has been drawn to the matter 
by bringing the body-snatchers before the police offices, and thus 
making a needless noise and parade. But this would be, im fact, an 
attempt to sanction the system of exhumation, which is in itself a dis- 
gusting act, and one which it is much too late to think of reviving. 
The general feelings of nature rise against it: and to oppose the course 
of them is perfectly useless. The practice will never again be tolerated. 
Nor have we any great faith in Dr. Macartney’s prescription. This 
is to remove all existing prejudices by dint of a little example, by the 
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