The court of Cacus, or, the story of Burke and Hare / by Alexander Leighton.

  • Leighton, Alexander, 1800-1874.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The court of Cacus, or, the story of Burke and Hare / by Alexander Leighton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    •r C^U4,ky The gradual disappearance of picturesque old Edinburgh is matter, of course, for regret. Few, however, xvill be found to say a good word for Burke and Hare's house, in the Westport, which is about to be razed to the ground. It was the scene of those ghastly murders which, about the year 1823, sent a thrill of horror throughout the kingdom. Within a comparatively short period no fewer than twelve persojs were done to death by the miscreants named, the corpses being sold to the infirmary doctors for sums ranging between £30 and £40. Guilt was at last brought home to them when the body of one of their victims, Daft Jamie, a well-known city character, was recognised by the students on the disseoting- table. The red-tiled, ramshackle old building remained vacant for many years afterwards, but latterly was occupied by a few tenants of the lowest class. The dark room where the murders were perpetrated has latterly been ueed as a bedroom; so, too, the closet underneath, reached by a trap-door, where the bodies were prepared for the dissecting room. #«ty ^XSlf^ax.