Project Gutenberg 2012-12-17 Public domain in the USA. 64 Leighton, Alexander 1800 1874 The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and Hare E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://archive.org) "The Court of Cacus; Or, The Story of Burke and Hare" by Alexander Leighton is a historical account written in the mid-19th century. The book illuminates the notorious tales of body snatching and medical malpractice in 19th-century Scotland, with a focus on the infamous pair, William Burke and William Hare, who became known for their grisly deeds. Through its vivid narrative, the work explores themes of morality, depravity, and the darker facets of human nature in pursuit of scientific advancement. At the start of the narrative, the atmosphere is set in Surgeon’s Square in Edinburgh during the autumn of 1827. The approach of a new and timid body-snatcher, who turns out to be William Burke, is detailed, as he encounters a student from Dr. Knox's class. This chance meeting foreshadows Burke's entry into the macabre trade of selling cadavers, a practice that thrived due to the growing demand in medical schools. The reader is introduced to the grim reality of body snatching, as Burke and the students engage in conversation about the value of human remains, and the narrative hints at the moral decay and desperate motivations that characterize the characters involved in this dark chapter of medical history. (This is an automatically generated summary.) file:///public/vhost/g/gutenberg/html/files/41642/41642-h/images/cover.jpg en Body snatching Burke, William, 1792-1829 Hare, William, 1792?-1870? RA Text Browsing: Crime/Mystery Browsing: Health & Medicine 503966 503776 2024-09-17T12:39:45.050825 2023-09-18T07:32:54.266584 text/html text/html 507447 2012-12-17T11:22:25 text/html 224578 2012-12-17T11:25:13 text/html application/zip 237619 2024-09-17T12:39:50.823821 application/epub+zip 241228 2024-09-17T12:39:45.880812 application/epub+zip 241229 2024-09-17T12:39:45.445832 application/epub+zip 384633 2024-09-17T12:39:55.136276 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 336321 2024-09-17T12:39:50.298785 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 336420 2022-09-19T05:21:05.023788 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 465671 465523 2024-09-17T12:39:44.504834 2023-09-18T07:32:53.733563 text/plain; charset=us-ascii text/plain 465153 2012-12-17T09:28:58 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 179057 2012-12-17T09:28:58 text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 application/zip 465172 2012-12-17T09:28:58 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 178990 2012-12-17T09:28:58 text/plain; charset=us-ascii application/zip 20560 2024-09-17T12:39:55.302263 application/rdf+xml 13004 2024-09-17T12:39:45.534813 image/jpeg 2271 2024-09-17T12:39:45.488817 image/jpeg 228222 2024-09-17T12:39:45.096812 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog en.wikipedia