When science met scandal: Dr Robert Knox and the Burke and Hare murders

Within the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Archive are twenty letters addressed to John Robison, the RSE’s General Secretary, dating from late 1828 to early 1829. Their authors include the anatomist Dr Robert Knox, central to the Burke and Hare controversy, Lord Henry Cockburn, lawyer and judge, and Charles Maclaren, editor of The Scotsman. The letters were written during a turbulent period in Edinburgh’s medical history, which saw remarkable medical advances driven by the shadowy black-market trade in human remains.

Image: lllustration of Dr Robert Knox. Credit: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/2940

Dr Robert Knox was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1823. His proposer, Alexander Monro, was the antithesis of Knox. Monro held the position of Professor of Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and was responsible for teaching the next generation of medics. Unfortunately for his students, his teaching style was less than engaging – a young Charles Darwin stated Monro “made his lectures on human anatomy as dull as he was himself”.

Image: Letter from Alexander Monro recommending Dr Robert Knox for Fellowship [Archive reference: ACC10000/43]

Monro’s tedious classes created a demand for private tuition – one that was filled by the young Dr Knox. A major attraction of Knox’s class was his guarantee that students attending his course would see a human body completely dissected, reflecting the early 19^th century view that medical teaching required practical investigation in order to be understood. Acquiring bodies for dissection was challenging, however. As many as 90 cadavers were needed for a year of Knox’s classes. While the Murder Act of 1752 had established that those found guilty of murder could be put to death and dissected post-mortem, with the intention of furnishing educators with a legal supply of corpses for medical teaching, bodies for dissection remained in short supply. This gave rise to a criminal trade, and saw medics accepting bodies supplied through illegal means.

Perhaps the most notorious pair involved in this practice were William Burke and William Hare. When a lodger of Hare’s died of dropsy, he and Burke came up with a plan to sell the body to a local anatomist to make up for the lodger’s unpaid rent. Despite asking for directions to Monro’s office, the pair ended up at Knox’s door, where he agreed a price of £7 and 10 shillings. This set Burke and Hare on a murderous rampage that saw them kill 16 people – the majority women – and sell the bodies of their victims to Knox.

Following their arrest, Burke signed a confession saying Knox had no knowledge of the murders. The public believed him guilty, however, and demanded he face justice. On 24 December, William Burke was tried and convicted of murder. His execution on 28 January 1829 took place amid public outrage, with crowds demanding Dr Knox be punished for his involvement in the pair’s crimes.

Image: Portrait of Sir Walter Scott by John Graham-Gilbert

At the same time as public interest in Knox was at its peak, Knox was continuing to make a name for himself within the RSE, regularly presenting his research and publishing in the RSE’s Transactions journal. On 14 January 1829, the RSE’s President Sir Walter Scott intervened – he convinced the RSE’s General Secretary John Robison to prevent a scheduled paper by Knox from being presented, much to Knox’s annoyance. The subject of Knox’s withdrawn paper remains unknown, though his correspondence hints at its importance. He described it as “one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made in anatomy” and later referred to “the great anatomical fact I communicated to you… one of the most important enquiries and discoveries since the time of Vesalius.”

Image: “I continue to investigate notwithstanding the shameful attempts of my private enemies to distract my mind the great anatomical fact I communicated to you with results of the most striking nature. I deem it one of the most important enquiries and discoveries which has been made since the time of Vesalius”.

Letter from Dr Robert Knox to John Robison [Archive reference: ACC10000/352]

Under intense public scrutiny, Knox proposed the formation of a committee to investigate his role in acquiring bodies for dissection, with the Society’s General Secretary, John Robison, chairing the committee. Sir Walter Scott refused to join, declaring he would not “lend a hand to whitewash this much-to-be-suspected individual.”

The committee was tasked with investigating Knox’s involvement (or lack thereof) in the procurement of bodies used for anatomical study. To many, the committee seemed composed largely of Knox’s friends and sympathisers, raising doubts about its impartiality. These suspicions were strengthened when the committee’s report completely exonerated Knox, and Charles Maclaren, editor of The Scotsman¸called for the report to be published. This idea was strongly rejected by committee member Henry Cockburn; as the lawyer who successfully defended Helen McDougall, Burke’s partner, from the gallows, Cockburn argued that publicising the details of anatomical practice would only invite misunderstanding: “Printing the evidence would do great harm: chiefly because these anatomical mysteries can never be fitted for the public eye.”

Despite this defence from Cockburn, letters from Charles Maclaren reveal that Knox could not resist interfering with the publication process. He insisted that only the Caledonian Mercury should be allowed to print the final report, despite (or possibly because) the paper being notoriously hostile towards him. Perhaps he felt that this would lead to the findings being given a more favourable write-up than he had experienced previously when the newspaper had published a poem from the point of view of Burke:

Image description: Poem published by the Caledonian Mercury [Archive reference: ACC10000/352]

Despite Knox’s protests, the committee’s report was eventually published in the Caledonian Mercury, the Courant, and The Scotsman. While the committee had found Knox innocent, his reputation was ruined, and factions within the Society continued to press for his removal.

In 1848, Knox was formally removed from the Society’s Roll, not for his role in the Burke and Hare affair, but for repeatedly failing to pay his subscription fees.