Mr. Wynne E. Baxter, the Coroner inquiring into the Whitechapel
murders, has justified his conduct in insisting on the publicity which we last week condemned. He has been the first to offer a reasonable explanation of the murders. They are atrocities of the _old Burke and Hare type, aggra- vated. It appears that some American student of uterine pathology some months ago offered 220 each for specimens taken from corpses recently deceased. The offer was made to two pathological museums hi London in suc- cession, and was considered so strange that it was remem- bered, and on the appearance of Dr. Phillips's evidence in the papers, was communicated to the Coroner. As the uterus had been taken from _the body of the second victim by a murderer with some knowledge of anatomy, and an attempt had been made upon the _former one, the
suggestion is that he had been tempted by the £20, as Burke was by the £7 10s. offered for " subjects," and had committed two murders to obtain the reward.. The theory looks probable, and if correct, should limit and direct the search, the miscreant being clearly a foreign medical student, or more probably attendant of a dissecting-room, known to be dark—possibly half-caste—over forty, not tall, of shabby-genteel appearance, and dressed in a deerstalker hat and a dark coat. He would be almost certain to describe himself at his lodgings as a student of medicine. If this is the history of these crimes, they are by far the most devilish committed in this country during this generation, and it will be a disgrace to our .civilisation if the criminal escapes.
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