- Email: [email protected]
THE RESURRECTION MEN.
1158
ANNOTATIONS house, but in the Kangra Valley there
two outand standing peculiarities : A PICTURE of the more famous crimes associated field workers as well as to the house, people keeping with the activities of the resurrection men, and are affected. some new factor must come Clearly entitled " The Inhumanists,"1 suggests the question into play. The most likely contributory factor why those activities have become of topical interest. would be a salt deficiency, a deficiency of calcium or Did Dr. McBride, in the terrible little play which of phosphate in the diet, of so severe a degree as to we recently reviewed in these columns and which leave the body in negative calcium balance, even was afterwards played with success in a London exposure to the sun was quite considerable. though theatre, popularise body-snatching as a theme for a In cattle such a state of affairs, due to a phosphate drama, or did he respond to the feeling that at the deficiency in the pastures in certain parts of the world, present moment the public were curious concerning is well known. Since last summer Dr. Wilson has a subject which 100 years ago was of terrible import ?‘? ; this theory to the test, and relates in our present Mr. Turner sketches correctly the circumstances issue that in the case of persons not starved of both of the law and of medical education which led sunlight a daily dose of tricalcium phosphate caused to dead bodies becoming an article of merchandise rapid alleviation of the painful symptoms, but that to be dealt in by those in charge of anatomy schools in those deprived also of sunlight the addition of on one side and the disreputable order of Jerry the salt caused little benefit ; in the latter case the Crunchers on the other. He goes on to narrate with would be a dual one, of vitamin D and deficiency horrid detail the methods taken by resurrection menI calcium or phosphate, and correction of the salt and the counter-measures of the forces of the law, alone would not effect a cure. The season deficiency finally relating a series of sensational crimes. We at which the cures took place is not mentioned, but have here something of the skill of Poe in painting presumably there is no likelihood that they could be lurid pictures, and the excerpts from the diary of to change of season, as was, for instance, z!, the case in untreated Joseph Naples, in possession of the Royal cases of hunger osteomalacia of Surgeons of England, rival anything Poe everin Vienna in the post-war years. Dr. Wilson is i wrote in their cold horror. In this diary a leading’ in her efforts to help these suffering resurrectionist records his activities as body-snatcher as in the pursuit of knowledge, and as well people and gravedigger, setting down his crimes as the her work has the additional merit of being truly In one chapter Mr. items of a day’s work. in that she constantly endeavours to find practical, Turner draws an analogy between the methods of means of making up these dietary deficiencies which the modern American gangster and those of the shall be so cheap as to be easily accessible to the London resurrectionist a hundred years ago, which in India. Thus she has also made trial of poorest shows how seldom a precedent cannot be found for sun-irradiated yeast as a source of vitamin D, and the law-breaker. "Like modern American rackethat it is efficacious in those cases of osteomalacia teers," he writes, " rival gangs of resurrectionists had where there is a deficiency of that vitamin, such cases allotted territories both for producing and marketing, being, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of but these arrangements fell to pieces as the supply which occur in India. failed to keep pace with the demand, and inter-gang warfare broke out. The paramount corpse I NORMAL GASTRIC ACIDITY. king would fix famine prices and ask as much as z, 20 guineas for a single body. A rival gangster would EXTREME variations in gastric acidity are known offer supplies at a lower price and obtain the to occur in normal individuals and to be compatible tract, as it were, but as soon as the corpse king knowi with perfect health. No normal constant value is of it the price-cutter would be shadowed day and therefore available and this is a serious disadvantage night until an opportunity occurred to betray him in interpreting the results of test-meal analyses. to the police in the act of exhumation, and he would and hypo-chlorhydria are purely relative i be put out of the way for six months or so." An Hyperwith an "average" degree of terms, compared impulse to write " The Inhumanists " seems to have acidity as judged from a number of analyses ; but been the author’s feeling that Edinburgh is wrongly for any individual " average " acidity is not necessarily accused of having been the original centre of the the normal. Moreover, varying types of test-meal body-snatching trade-a reputation acquired by the curves may be obtained in the same individual under tremendous excitement over the Burke and Hare different circumstances. Factors the murders-whereas, says Mr. Turner, London was curve include the type of meal andinfluencing the age of the the real centre, one famous London surgeon being patient. Attention has lately been focused upon the mainspring of the trade. To-day the enlightened the changes that may normally occur with advancing cooperation of public authorities, kept alive by the years. Some workers at the Mayo Clinic have official inspectorship of anatomy, ensures the supply examined1 the results of gastric analyses in 3746 of subjects to medical schools. persons in whom they were satisfied that no disease The testaffecting gastric secretion was present. meal employed was a mixture of " eight arrowIN THE A NEW FACTOR CAUSATION OF root cookies and 400 c.cm. of water," and in general OSTEOMALACIA. the one hour sample was used for analysis ; in some I cases histamine was used in addition as the stimulus. LAST year in our columns Dr. Dagmar Wilson a very interesting account of osteomalacia in The conclusions drawn are as follows :Free gastric I in India. Osteomalacia in India as Kangra Valley acidity appears to increase rapidly from childhood a whole attacks women, and amongst women only up to the age of 20 years ; in men the average free those whom the custom of purdah confines to the acidity, at one hour, lies within 45 and 50 units THE RESURRECTION MEN.
men as
well
are
as women,
I
’
put
I
I
Collageattributed
indefatigable
I finds
ruthlessthose con-I
gave theI
1 The Inhumanists. By Cecil Howard Turner. Alexander Ouseley, Ltd. 1932. Pp. 286. 8s. 6d.
London:
2 Vanzant, F. R., Alvarez, W. C., Eusterman, G. B., Dunn, H. L., and Berkson, J.: Arch. Int. Med., 1932, xlix., 345.
ANNOTATIONS house, but in the Kangra Valley there
two outand standing peculiarities : A PICTURE of the more famous crimes associated field workers as well as to the house, people keeping with the activities of the resurrection men, and are affected. some new factor must come Clearly entitled " The Inhumanists,"1 suggests the question into play. The most likely contributory factor why those activities have become of topical interest. would be a salt deficiency, a deficiency of calcium or Did Dr. McBride, in the terrible little play which of phosphate in the diet, of so severe a degree as to we recently reviewed in these columns and which leave the body in negative calcium balance, even was afterwards played with success in a London exposure to the sun was quite considerable. though theatre, popularise body-snatching as a theme for a In cattle such a state of affairs, due to a phosphate drama, or did he respond to the feeling that at the deficiency in the pastures in certain parts of the world, present moment the public were curious concerning is well known. Since last summer Dr. Wilson has a subject which 100 years ago was of terrible import ?‘? ; this theory to the test, and relates in our present Mr. Turner sketches correctly the circumstances issue that in the case of persons not starved of both of the law and of medical education which led sunlight a daily dose of tricalcium phosphate caused to dead bodies becoming an article of merchandise rapid alleviation of the painful symptoms, but that to be dealt in by those in charge of anatomy schools in those deprived also of sunlight the addition of on one side and the disreputable order of Jerry the salt caused little benefit ; in the latter case the Crunchers on the other. He goes on to narrate with would be a dual one, of vitamin D and deficiency horrid detail the methods taken by resurrection menI calcium or phosphate, and correction of the salt and the counter-measures of the forces of the law, alone would not effect a cure. The season deficiency finally relating a series of sensational crimes. We at which the cures took place is not mentioned, but have here something of the skill of Poe in painting presumably there is no likelihood that they could be lurid pictures, and the excerpts from the diary of to change of season, as was, for instance, z!, the case in untreated Joseph Naples, in possession of the Royal cases of hunger osteomalacia of Surgeons of England, rival anything Poe everin Vienna in the post-war years. Dr. Wilson is i wrote in their cold horror. In this diary a leading’ in her efforts to help these suffering resurrectionist records his activities as body-snatcher as in the pursuit of knowledge, and as well people and gravedigger, setting down his crimes as the her work has the additional merit of being truly In one chapter Mr. items of a day’s work. in that she constantly endeavours to find practical, Turner draws an analogy between the methods of means of making up these dietary deficiencies which the modern American gangster and those of the shall be so cheap as to be easily accessible to the London resurrectionist a hundred years ago, which in India. Thus she has also made trial of poorest shows how seldom a precedent cannot be found for sun-irradiated yeast as a source of vitamin D, and the law-breaker. "Like modern American rackethat it is efficacious in those cases of osteomalacia teers," he writes, " rival gangs of resurrectionists had where there is a deficiency of that vitamin, such cases allotted territories both for producing and marketing, being, as has been pointed out, the vast majority of but these arrangements fell to pieces as the supply which occur in India. failed to keep pace with the demand, and inter-gang warfare broke out. The paramount corpse I NORMAL GASTRIC ACIDITY. king would fix famine prices and ask as much as z, 20 guineas for a single body. A rival gangster would EXTREME variations in gastric acidity are known offer supplies at a lower price and obtain the to occur in normal individuals and to be compatible tract, as it were, but as soon as the corpse king knowi with perfect health. No normal constant value is of it the price-cutter would be shadowed day and therefore available and this is a serious disadvantage night until an opportunity occurred to betray him in interpreting the results of test-meal analyses. to the police in the act of exhumation, and he would and hypo-chlorhydria are purely relative i be put out of the way for six months or so." An Hyperwith an "average" degree of terms, compared impulse to write " The Inhumanists " seems to have acidity as judged from a number of analyses ; but been the author’s feeling that Edinburgh is wrongly for any individual " average " acidity is not necessarily accused of having been the original centre of the the normal. Moreover, varying types of test-meal body-snatching trade-a reputation acquired by the curves may be obtained in the same individual under tremendous excitement over the Burke and Hare different circumstances. Factors the murders-whereas, says Mr. Turner, London was curve include the type of meal andinfluencing the age of the the real centre, one famous London surgeon being patient. Attention has lately been focused upon the mainspring of the trade. To-day the enlightened the changes that may normally occur with advancing cooperation of public authorities, kept alive by the years. Some workers at the Mayo Clinic have official inspectorship of anatomy, ensures the supply examined1 the results of gastric analyses in 3746 of subjects to medical schools. persons in whom they were satisfied that no disease The testaffecting gastric secretion was present. meal employed was a mixture of " eight arrowIN THE A NEW FACTOR CAUSATION OF root cookies and 400 c.cm. of water," and in general OSTEOMALACIA. the one hour sample was used for analysis ; in some I cases histamine was used in addition as the stimulus. LAST year in our columns Dr. Dagmar Wilson a very interesting account of osteomalacia in The conclusions drawn are as follows :Free gastric I in India. Osteomalacia in India as Kangra Valley acidity appears to increase rapidly from childhood a whole attacks women, and amongst women only up to the age of 20 years ; in men the average free those whom the custom of purdah confines to the acidity, at one hour, lies within 45 and 50 units THE RESURRECTION MEN.
men as
well
are
as women,
I
’
put
I
I
Collageattributed
indefatigable
I finds
ruthlessthose con-I
gave theI
1 The Inhumanists. By Cecil Howard Turner. Alexander Ouseley, Ltd. 1932. Pp. 286. 8s. 6d.
London:
2 Vanzant, F. R., Alvarez, W. C., Eusterman, G. B., Dunn, H. L., and Berkson, J.: Arch. Int. Med., 1932, xlix., 345.