TOPICS OF TUE. DAY.
BURRING.
WHATEVER may be the result of the approaching trialof Bistior and his companions for their alleged share in the destruction of the unfortunate Italian boy,*we fear that no reasonable doubt can be entertained of the boy's having come foully by his death. The • consideration of the crime to which he, and not he alone, but, as is not without reason supposed, many others, have fallen victims, has produced in the public mind a degree of excitement which we would fain turn to some useful purpose.
Two years ago, Mr. WARBURTON introduced a bill, the object of which was to put an end to these secret murders, by removing the temptation which leads to their commission. His plan was not perhaps without defects ; but instead of an attempt to mend them, both he and it were assailed, and that not by the mere vul- gar, with a brutality and ignorance of abuse that a measure for encouraging instead of repressing " Burking" might have been ex- pected to call forth. No well-informed or sensible man will for a moment question the necessity of furnishing the medical profes- sion with ample means of investigating that, on a perfect know- ledge of which the whole success of the curative art depends-the structure of the human body. Since, for the purposes of science, ill the progress of which poor and rich are equally concerned, it is necessary that surgeons have subjects, the only question for con- sideration is, by what means the bodies of the dead shall be pro- cured so as least to outrage the feelings of the living. The ordi- nary process, as we may call it, is the violation of our churchyards. We need not dwell on the moral turpitude which this process ne- cessarily supposes in all who are concerned in it. Even the sur- geon participates in some degree in the debasement of its illegality. The inferior agents are the lowest and most loathed of human so- ciety. Arid who are the victims of the resurrectionist? Not the wealthy, not the noble ; the grief and pain occasioned by the crime, whether discoVered or merely suspected, fall solely on the poor. And on whom, in defect of his usual supply, does the re- surrectionist, turned assassin, make his midnight assaults ? Not on the wealthy, not on the noble ; but on the poor, the friendless, the houseless. While, therefore, under the present system-a system whose horrors may be glossed over, but cannot be effectually diminished-the poor alone are the sufferers, can any reasoning be more perverted than theirs who oppose the plan of Mr. WARBUR- TON, on the sole ground that the poor are to suffer by it ? Mr. WAR- BURTONS plan went to consign to the hands of the anatomist all bodies of persons dying in workhouses or hospitals, without friends or relations who would or could make out a claim to the possession of them. It assigned legally to the purposes of science those bo- dies whose dissection, by the hypothesis, could give a pang to no living soul, in order to save many from pangs deep and lasting, and all from fear and uncertainty. It has been said, why do not philo- sophers give their own bodies to the dissecting-knife ? Philoso- phers have done so. But, unfortunately for society, the poor and the destitute are more numerous than the philosophers ; and even though the latter were as abounding as they are scarce, by the laws of the land the body is not subject to be willed at the pleasure of its tenant: it belongs to the heir, and the heir of a BENTHAM 1. may be as vulgar in his prejudices as the heir of an ELDON. There was, indeed, one plausible objection to Mr. WARBURTON S plan-a plan which we hope to see revived : it was contended that the number of persons who die in hospitals or workhouses, without friends, would be found too small for the demand of the anatomical theatres. Perhaps, to begin with, it might ; but prejudice, in this as in other cases, is only strong while it is supported by a show of reason and right. \VL have no doubt, that were dissectors allowed a legal supply of bodies, however small, many would be induced to forego their claim over the bodies of not very near relations, where no idea of degradation was connecttd with its surrender. Something may perhaps be done by statute, much may be done by careful examination on the part of surgeons to whom bodies are offered, to repress the crime with which the two men BISHOP and WILLIAMS are charged ; but it. will never be wholly put down- or, what is nearly the same thing, the public will never have a perfect assurance that it is so-unless by providing fairly and openly, under the warrant of law, that supply of bodies which is . now obtained by illegal means.
* The zeal with which the inquiry into the murderof this boy has been prosecuted, does high honour to the Pace of the country. The patient and persevering atten- tion of the Magistrate, of the very active and intelligent Superintendent Mr. THOMAS, and of his men, could not have been more exemplary had the heir of a monarch been concerned, than in the case of the poor wandering Savoyard boy. t This altogether singular and good man has, we believe, directed that his body, when his mind has done with it, shall be devoted to scientific purposes ; and that not only the process of dissecting, but of preserving, shall be exemplified in respect to it.
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