The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and Hare — John Shaqi
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?
Whether these stories were true, or merely got up by the extravagant love
of fun in the Captain, it would not be easy to say; but certain it is,
that their being told and responded to in the manner thus described, from
the lips of an ear-witness, shews us the atmosphere of moral feeling that
then obtained in places proudly designated as being dedicated to the
interests of humanity, and from which, too, we could draw the conclusion
that what was gained in the amelioration of physical disease was required
to be debited so largely with the deterioration of morals and a
wide-spread infliction of pain. But even darker deeds were done in
Scotland than those for which the Captain took so gasconading a credit.
From a certain village called S----e, the myrmidons of the Square, and
particularly the "Spune," got more material for the Hall than could have
been expected without a resident sympathiser and participator in the
profits. That zealous correspondent was not the sexton--no, nor the
minister; but he was the minister's brother, and, so far as we can learn,
a member of the profession. Need it be remarked how convenient the
relation between the messenger of heaven and the benefactor of earth--the
physician of souls and the curer of bodies--the man of prayers and the man
of pills--the distributor of the great catholicon and the dispenser of the
small! We can fancy the godly man, we believe all unconscious of the
intentions of his brother, pouring the holy unction of his prayers over
the struggling spirit of the dying Christian, and the doctor counting the
pulses as they died away into that stillness which was to be the prelude
to the payment--five pounds--for the deserted temple. One recording angel
would fly to heaven with a name to be inscribed in the roll of eternal
salvation, and the other to Edinburgh to announce that another body was to
be inserted in the black list of Surgeon's Square.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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