152 HUMAN DISSECTION. ITS DRAMA AND STRUGGLE 



would be sentenced to six months imprisonment; for a second 

 offense, the time would be increased to two years. Unclaimed 

 bodies from the workhouses and hospitals would be turned over 

 to anatomists seventy-two hours after death. Willing of bodies 

 was legalized but the final disposition had to be decided by a 

 legal executor. A major flaw was a failure to repeal the law that 

 executed murderers must be dissected (Guttmacher, '35). An- 

 other impetus was needed to thoroughly activate the parliamen- 

 tarians. This occurred in England. 



The specific incident revolved around the disposal of the 

 body of a fourteen year-old lad in London, by two men named 

 Bishop and May. They appeared on the premises of King's Col- 

 lege, on November 5, 1831, and asked Hill, the porter, if the 

 medical school needed a cadaver. Assured that one could be used, 

 they informed him of the age of the subject, and asked 12 guineas 

 for it, sight unseen. Eventually, they agreed to take 9. That after- 

 noon, they returned, with another man named Williams, and the 

 boy, who was in a hamper. The assistant, on seeing the corpse, 

 suspected foul play, and immediately communicated his distrust 

 to his superior, Mr. Partridge, the demonstrator in anatomy. The 

 teacher examined the body and he likewise, was of the opinion 

 that something might be amiss. He felt that the police should be 

 notified, and, in order to detain the resurrectionists, he produced 

 a 50 pound note, which he said would have to be changed before 

 he could reimburse them. 



The officers of the law were notified and when they arrived 

 they took the trio into custody. It did not take long to ascertain 

 that the subject was that of an Italian boy, one Carlo Ferrari, 

 who had eked out a living by exhibiting white mice; his teetli had 

 been extracted and sold to a dentist by the name of Mills for 

 12 shillings. The story came out in the confession of Bishop and 

 Williams. They had lured the youngster to their dwelling in Nova 

 Scotia Gardens where he had been drugged with opium and his 

 body lowered into a well, where he suffocated. In their written 

 statement, they also admitted the additional killing of a woman, 

 a Fanny Pigburn and another boy, whose name they gave as Gun 

 ningham; both had been sold to the medical schools. This brings 

 up the question as to how many murdered bodies may actually 



