The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and HareLeighton, Alexander
History
The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and Hare
Leighton, Alexander
Body snatching; Burke, William, 1792-1829; Hare, William, 1792?-1870?
a kingdom; and yet the object of the conflict was the body of a wandering
beggar. Nor is it known how long this affray might have lasted, if some
people in the neighbourhood, having heard the uproar, had not threatened,
by getting to the top of the wall, to bring the champions before the
authorities. The Monroites fled, and the object of all this contention was
left in the hands of those who, by possession, had at least the prior
right. The box was hoisted to the rooms amidst the acclamations of the
conquerors. "_Sic hi alacres cadaver extulerunt e bello._"
The want of this fruitful field behoved afterwards, on the advent of Knox,
to be supplied by increased exactions over the country; and hence came a
more perfect organisation of a staff, composed of men who, without the
excuse of a stimulus for science, were attracted to the work by the bribe
of high payments. We have already seen to what extent that bribe reached;
and whatever otherwise may be thought of those grim minions of the moon,
they had more to stir the low passions of human nature than those older
minions on the borders, who, for the sake of living steers, often made
dead bodies. Science became the Nemesis of the dearest and most sacred
affections; and what may appear strange enough, the students themselves
engaged in the work with a feeling, as we have hinted, approaching to
chivalry. They were sworn knights of the fair damsel Science, though the
rites were those of Melpomene, with the grotesque shapes of those of
Thalia. The midnight enterprises had charms for them, but they were death
to those feelings of a Christian people, which require to be viewed as a
natural and necessary part of a social fabric, to be tampered with only to
the ruin of virtue. Among these knights at an earlier period stood Robert
Liston, whose hardihood and coolness in such midnight adventures could
only be equalled by his subsequent surgical handlings; and like all other
vigorous and enthusiastic men, he had the power of enlisting associates,
warmed by the fire he himself felt.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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