* * * * *

It was quite necessary for the Committee on Anatomy to adopt some means to
protect the resurrection-men who gave evidence before it; this was done
by suppressing their names, and using letters of the alphabet to
distinguish the witnesses one from another. Popular feeling was so bitter
against these men that they were often severely handled by the mob.
Sometimes the mob made a mistake, and the innocent suffered for the
guilty. In 1823 a coach containing an empty coffin was being drawn along
the streets of Edinburgh; the people, suspecting that it was intended to
convey a body, taken from some churchyard, seized the coach; it was with
great difficulty that the police rescued the driver from the fury of the
mob. The coach they could not save; it was taken through the streets,
thrown over a mound, and smashed; the people then kindled a fire with the
fragments, and danced round it. It turned out that the coffin was intended
to convey to his house, in Edinburgh, the body of a physician who had died
in the country.

On another occasion two American gentlemen, who were looking at the Abbey
of Linlithgow after nightfall, were mistaken for resurrection-men, and
assaulted by the mob.

One of the witnesses, called "A. B.," but who was probably Ben Crouch
himself, stated that twenty-three in four nights was the greatest number
he had ever obtained. He added, "When I go to work, I like to get those of
poor people buried from the workhouses, because instead of working for one
subject, you may get three or four. I do not think, during the time I have
been in the habit of working for the schools, I got half a dozen of
wealthier people." Another witness, who is called "C. D.," but who was,
without doubt, the writer of the Diary, stated that, "according to my
book," in 1809 and 1810 the number of bodies disposed of in England was
305 adults and 44 small; but the same year 37 were sent to Edinburgh, and
the gang had 18 in hand, which were never used at all. In 1810-11, 312
adults were disposed of in the regular session, and 20 in the summer, in
addition to 47 smalls. In the Report of the Committee in 1828, it was
pointed out that, at that time, there were over 800 students attending the
Schools of Anatomy in London, but of these not more than 500 actually
worked at dissection. The number of subjects annually available for
instruction amounted to between 450 and 500, or rather less than one for
each