Burke and Hare: Killing for Bodies
Burke’s the butcher,
Hare’s the thief,
And Knox the boy who buys the beef.
(children's jump-roping rhyme)
Podcast from Chemical Heritage Foundation
THE TEN-MONTH KILLING SPREE OF BURKE AND HARE Anatomy schools (officially) dissected some 592 corpses in 1825; at the time of the Burke and Hare murders, only about 50 executions were carried out annually, and each college was guaranteed just one a year. -"Executed Today" |
'At the end of the Enlightenment period there was significant demand for cadavers - which indeed outstripped supply - and that led to a thriving illegal trade, with Burke and Hare clearly the most infamous of those who supplied bodies to medical schools.' -John Lawson, from the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeology Service |
Burke's method of killing became so famous it was named after him:
Burke: 1. to murder, as by suffocation, so as to leave no or few marks of violence 2.to suppress or get rid of by some indirect maneuver. (from the online English dictionary) |