126 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



pupil to the door of the police station unless he was paid a guinea, 

 an exorbitant fare. 



Exportation of cadavers, from one city to another and from 

 one country to another, flourished in the early 19th Century. 

 Here again, deception was practiced, the aim being to camouflage 

 as much as possible. Bales, crates, packing-boxes, piano cases and 

 barrels were employed as containers for shipment, in each case, 

 trying to simulate a certain class of goods. 



The sale of human teeth, as a profitable sideline, has been 

 mentioned. These parts were in demand although the porcelain 

 tooth was invented in 1776; the latter, however, did not become 

 widely used until after about 1825. Because dental science was 

 in its infancy, the method of filling teeth was crude and inefficient 

 and decay was, therefore, common. Plates and bridges were made 

 of sound teeth extracted from corpses. When a cadaver, removed 

 from its grave, was too decomposed for anatomical use, these parts 

 were still valuable. 



During the summer months, there was a lull in the trade 

 of body snatching for two reasons: there was little demand for 

 bodies at this season of the year and the lighter nights increased 

 the chance of detection. When a full moon shone, the resurret 

 tionists either stayed at home or drank in the taverns. 



Although a rather constant state of adverse emotionalism 

 existed, among the people of the British Isles, stimulated ])y 

 the activities of the resurrectionists, it was not adequate or sufli 

 ciently well-organized to deter body snatching as it was prac 

 ticed during the latter part of the 18th Century and the early 

 part of the 19th. Even though mob violence occurred sporadically, 

 it took events of a more inflammatory nature for a crisis to occur. 



Mob violence invariably developed when murder was resorted 

 to as a means of supplying cadavers for the anatomical depart 

 ments. This reaction was not too unexpected when considering the 

 type of individuals involved, lured by possible monetary gains 

 and the seriousness of the crime. A total of eighteen known mur 

 ders were performed in the British Isles, seventeen in Scotland 

 and one in England, and they were accomplished by special metli 

 ods to prevent detection. 



