670 



RE8UKBEOTIONI8T8 



RETIREMENT 



tin-in tut 'subject*' to lecturers on anatomy. 

 Cradual progress in the science of anatomy let! to 

 iis more thorough study l>y greatly increased num. 

 ben of medical students; and from about tin- middle 

 of tbe 18th century professors of anatomy found 

 tliat the supply of subjects, heretofore mainly 

 obtained from the bodies of executed criminal.-*, 

 was altogether inadequate to meet the wants of 

 the surgical and medical schools. The resurrec- 

 tionists invented a new profession to supply the 

 Irn-k, ami in the lirst quarter of the 19th century 

 drove a most flourishing trade the graveyards in 

 the outlying parts of London being especially the 

 happy limiting-grounds of the confraternity. As 

 the business became organised, grave-diggers and 

 .-'xt ons were bribed to leave graveyards unlocked 

 and keep out of the way when a body was l>eing 

 raised. A very short time, usually at dead of 

 night, sufficed ; an expert pair of resurrectionists 

 liemg able in about forty-five minutes to prise up 

 the coHin out of a newly-made grave by means of a 

 peculiar crowbar for the purpose, to burst in the 

 lid, and remove the corpse. Corpses resurrected 

 after this fashion seem to have been worth S or 

 10 offering large profit* and quick returns to this 

 precarious and risky trade. The Ixxly-snatchers 

 r.ti i-fiilly replaced the clothing in the cotlin ; the 

 stealing of the naked corpse being by the law of 

 Kngland a misdemeanour only, whereas the re- 

 moval of the clothes was of course a felony, punish- 

 able by transportation. So notorious did the 

 practice of resurrectioriism Itecome that in many 

 jiarts of the country painful precautions against 

 it were regularly taken. Heavy gratings were 

 securely fixed over new-made graves', spring-guns 

 were set, and often the relatives of deceased persons 

 sat armed by their graves night after night until 

 it was assumed that the corpses would be no longer 

 serviceable to ' the doctors ' a custom that sur- 

 vived in some places till far on in the century, 

 (luard-hoiises or towers were sometimes built for 

 the accommodation of the watchers. To the 

 popular horror of this degraded calling, recruited 

 from the worst classes, was added a strong 

 suspicion that resurrectionists would on occasion 

 manufacture corpses a suspicion confirmed in the 

 notorious case of Burke and Hare (see BURKE, 

 WILLIAM). The pausing of the Anatomy Acte of 

 1832 and 1871 rendered the lucrative trade of the 

 resurrectionist superfluous ; but in out-of-the-way 

 places there are still traces of the old terror of 

 body-snatchers supposed to drive put silently at 

 nights in gigs with india-rubber tires, the horses 

 being also shod with india-rubber, and the occu- 

 pants of the gig provided with pitch-plasters to 

 clap on the mouths of any likely victims. Single 

 instances of a special kind of resurrectionism have 

 occurred more recently ; it is practised expressly 

 with the hope of obtaining a reward from the 

 relatives of the jwrson whose Ixidy is stolen. Thus, 

 the American millionaire, A. T. Stewart, died in 

 April 1876, and was emlwvlmed and duly buried 

 in a triple coffin in the family vault in a New 

 York graveyard ; two and a half years afterwards 

 the body was removed, and a reward of 25,000 

 was offered by advertisement for its restoration. 

 The body-snatchers, represented by a regular prac- 

 li-ing lawyer, demanded $200.000, then $100,000, 

 and after three years restored the tmdy on pay- 

 ment of $20,000. The body of the Earl of Crawford, 

 who died at Florence in December 1880, was 

 removed from the mausoleum at Dunecht, near 

 Aberdeen, a year afterward* ; the Wly was found 

 in a wood close by in -Inly 1882, and the male- 

 factor condemned to five years' penal servitude. 



EM Lonidale'* Lift of Dr K. Knox (1870); Mr. 

 H. H. Rodger, Thr A'mlrrn doctor* (1893); and J. 

 fiUke Bailey, The Diary of a Xeiurreetionut ( ISUfi ). 



Retainer i-. in l'.n^li-h law, the act of en- 

 gaging an attorney or counsel to attend to a certain 

 suit or case. The retainer of an attorney may 

 be either verbal or in writing ; but the retainer of 

 counsel is usually by written memorandum handed 

 to his clerk, together with a small retaining fee. 

 A general retainer is given by a party who wishes 

 to secure the services of counsel in all actions 

 brought by or against him. The terra retainer is 

 also used to denote the right of an executor to 

 retain a debt due to himself from his testator's 

 estate. 



Retford, EAST, a market-town of Nottingham- 

 shire, on the right bank of the Idle, an alllm-ni of 

 the Trent, 24 miles E. by S. of Sheffield and I. 'is 

 NNW. of London by the Great Northern Railway. 

 It has a handsome 'town-hall (1867), a gramnmr- 

 sehool (1552; rebuilt 1858), paper-mills, iron 

 foundries, &c. It was first formally inc6rporated 

 by James I., the municipal boundary being ex- 

 tended in 1878. The parliamentary borough was 

 extended in 1829 to take in the whole wapentake 

 of Bassetlaw since 1885 one of the four county 

 divisions. Pop. of municipal borough ( 1851 ) 2943 ; 

 (1881) 9748; (1891) 10,603. See Piercy's History 

 of Retford (1828). 



Rethel, a town of France (dept Ardennes), 

 prettily situated on the right bank of the Aisne, 

 24 miles NE. of Rheiins, has woollen and other 

 manufactures. Pop. 7377. 



Rctimo (Rhithymnos), a seaport of Crete, on 

 its north coast, 40 miles W. of Candia ; pop. 8000. 



Retina. See EYE. 



!!! inil ; . See PITCHSTONE. 



Rctinos'pora. See CYPRESS. 



Retirement of officers from the British army 

 is governed by royal warrants issued from time to 

 time. The rules of 1889 permit officers to retire 

 voluntarily with gratuities or pensions, and oblige 

 them to retire at certain ages, or after a period 

 of non-employment, on half-pay. Voluntary 

 retirement on a gratuity of 1200 is allowed to 

 officers other than those of the Coast Brigade Ho\ a I 

 Artillery, Coast Battalion Royal Engineers, Royal 

 Malta 'Fencible Artillery, Riding-masters and 

 Quartermasters (q.v.), after twelve years' service, 

 and to others on a pension according to rank and 

 service. With certain modifications, the maximum 

 rates are captains, 150 a year; majors, 2.Vi ; 

 lieutenant-colonels, 450. The age for compulsory 

 retirement is forty-five for captains and officers of 

 lower rank, with the exceptions named above, forty- 

 eight for majors, fifty-five for lieutenant-colonels 

 and colonels, sixty-two for major-generals, and 

 sixty-seven for lieutenant-generals and generals. 

 Non-emplovment for five years in any rank also 

 entails retirement. Officers of the Indian Si alt' 

 Corps and captains of the Koyal Engineers do not 

 come under these rules. The pensions granted in 

 cases of retirement for age are, generally making, 

 50 more than those cited above, but for the three, 

 ranks of general officers they are 600 to 7<H), 

 750 to 850, and 900 to 1000 according to age. 



Certain additions, generally in the form of 

 gratuities, are allowed to purchase officers and 

 officers of the lat* East India Company's Artillery 

 and Engineers, in consideration of their altered pros- 

 pects. The pensions of officers of the Indian Staff 

 Corps are subject to regulations laid down from 

 time to time by the Secretary of State for India, 

 They are considerably larger in amount than those 

 granted to the other branches of the service, and 

 are affected by numerous rules as to furlough, 

 length of service in India, &c., but no pension can 

 l>c earned by less than twenty years' service. 



Officers of the Coast Brigade Royal Artillery and 



