Morbid History – Poison. Disease. Death.

Flammable Fashion – Crinoline Mania

Between the 1850’s and the 1880s, the crinoline was a popular item of fashion for women of every social class. Consisting of a series of wide hoops, and often accompanied by a horsehair petticoat, the crinoline was worn underneath the skirts to give a wide silhouette.

However, the article was not without its risks. Thousands of women died as a result of their skirts catching fire, in part due to the width of the petticoats, and also the flammable nature of the materials used in their construction.

Gender Divide

Part of the reason that crinolines were so popular with women was that they were actually a fairly liberating garment. The wide skirts allowed women to create space around themselves, and in hot weather the dresses could even be fanned to create a cooling breeze. On the other hand, many men viewed the fashion trend with scorn, and satirical cartoons depicted ridiculously oversized crinolines, mocking those who wore them. While many male complaints with the fashion were exaggerated or even invented, the crinoline did come with some very real dangers.

Pretty but Deadly

One of the most well-publicised deaths was that of 14 year old Margaret Davey, a kitchen maid whose crinoline caught fire as she was reaching for some spoons on the mantelpiece. Deaths like this one were, however, not uncommon. In 1861, at least six ballet dancers died when they tried to help one dancer whose costume caught fire backstage. Sometimes entire theaters would burn down. It was estimated by the Lancet, a British medical journal, that 3000 women had suffered a similar fate to Margaret in the space of a single year.

Though there were ways of making fabrics less flammable, they often rendered the garment stiff, and the treatment gave the fabric an unattractive yellow colour. This meant that many women eschewed safety in favour of the pretty, floaty fabrics that were often little more than a tinderbox.

Industrial Hazards

However, fire was not the only hazard that confronted crinoline wearers. Many other women were also killed when their skirts became entangled in machinery. In 1864, Ann Rollinson was killed when her crinoline was dragged into an industrial mangle, breaking her spine (though she apparently lived for a further two hours after the accident). Sometimes, hoops could become entangled in carriage wheels, and on windy days women often risked being blown off their feet, which at best would result in embarrassment, even if they managed to avoid serious injury.

Repeating Fashion

The crinoline began to fall out of fashion around 1866, though it enjoyed some revivals in a modified form throughout various periods that followed, including the First World War and during the late 20th century, when designers like Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and John Galliano used crinolines in their popular designs. Fortunately, these modern interpretations are much safer than their historic counterparts.

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.racked.com/2017/12/19/16710276/burning-dresses-history

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crinoline#Hazards

http://www.irelandoldnews.com/Cork/1864/JUN.html

Death by Rail – The London Necropolis

In 1851 all of the graveyards in London closed their doors for further burial due to overcrowding. As a result, several companies established themselves as alternatives, providing burial services located outside of London in the surrounding suburbs. The largest corporation offering burial services was the London Necropolis Company. Established in 1852 by an Act of Parliament as a direct response to the closure of London’s graveyards, the company intended to establish a single cemetery large enough to accommodate all of London’s burials.

Brookwood Cemetery

The cemetery opened in 1854, and at the time was the largest cemetery in the world. The LNC offered three tiers of funerals. A first class funeral cost £2 10s, and allowed the family to select the burial plot and included the right to erect a permanent memorial. Second class burials cost £1, and allowed some control over the plot location. The right to erect a memorial cost an extra 10s. Third class funerals were reserved for those buried at the expense of the parish. While these burials had none of the frills of the higher tier options, Brookwood still afforded more dignity for poorer burials, as unlike all other graveyards at the time, the LNC did not use mass graves for the poor.

The London Necropolis Railway

The development of Britain’s railways system meant that bodies could now be transported over longer distances. The LNC built the London Necropolis Railway station next to Waterloo station in central London, and ran a dedicated railway line solely for funeral services.

There were two stations at the other end of the line. The North station was for non-conformists (those who didn’t want an Anglican burial) and the South station was for Anglicans. Both the station waiting rooms and the train themselves were segregated by both religion and class to prevent both mourners and cadavers from different social backgrounds from mixing.

In 1941 the railway terminus in London was all but destroyed during an air-raid. It was decided that it was not financially viable to rebuild the station, and the London Necropolis Railway was abandoned. After the end of the war the remaining parts of the London station were sold. The stations at Brookwood remained open as refreshment kiosks for a few years afterwards but were subsequently demolished.

The First Cremations

In 1878 the Cremation Society of Great Britain bought an isolated piece of the LNC’s Brookwood land and built Woking Crematorium on the site. However, it was not until 1884 that cremation of human remains was formally declared legal in Great Britain. Cremation was still not a common practice in Britain, as most people preferred a traditional burial. Until 1945 the practice remained unusual and relatively expensive. Woking crematorium was the only operational crematorium in the country, and the business from wealthy patrons provided an important line of income that helped to make up for the lack of burials.

End of the Line

The company was never as successful as had been hoped. Even though the LNC had been granted a monopoly on London burials, they still fell woefully short of their estimates. The site had been planned to accommodate 5 million burials – even by 1994, 150 years after its establishment, Brookwood had only conducted 231,730.

While it was never as successful as planned, the London Necropolis Company had a significant impact on the funeral industry, and the principles established by the LNC influenced the design of many other cemeteries worldwide. Brookwood cemetery today is a Grade I listed site, and is home to a number of notable graves and memorials.

Animals in Autopsies

Autopsies, or post-mortems as they are known in Scotland, are generally carried out to establish the cause of death if someone has died in unexplained or suspicious circumstances. Sometimes it is fairly obvious, owing to evidence of injuries or signs of disease. However, sometimes a little extra help is needed, and animals can provide clues as to the nature of a person’s death in some rather unexpected ways.

Medieval Chickens

Due to religious ideas about the body and resurrection, autopsies were very rarely carried out during the medieval period. However, in 1286, an unknown disease swept across Italy, and the authorities granted rare permission to carry out an autopsy on one of the unfortunate victims.

Noticing that local chickens seemed to be suffering from similar symptoms, a doctor dissected the birds and noticed strange abscesses on their hearts. Comparing them to the heart taken from the autopsy, a link was successfully established between infected chickens and the unknown disease. It was quickly advised that neither the chickens nor their eggs should be consumed.

Flies and Maggots

Maggots are also used frequently during autopsy examinations, especially in cases where the death is suspicious. Usually, larvae from various species of flies such as blow flies and bluebottles are used to give an indication of time of death. The oldest maggots can indicate when a body was first populated with the larvae, giving an idea of how long they have been dead. The first successful use of this technique, known as forensic entomology, was used in the UK in 1935 during the famous Buck Ruxton case, where the technique was used to give an accurate time of death for two female murder victims.

The Blow Fly, a common species found on cadavers

Tampering with Evidence

Other animals, however, are not so helpful. If a corpse is left exposed, it can often be mutilated by scavenging animals. Even in a domestic setting, cats, dogs and other pets can cause wounds or more serious damage to a cadaver if they have no other food source. In some cases, a corpse has been entirely consumed by hungry pets, destroying vital evidence that may have been on the body. Rats can cause particular problems. During one case in 2002, lesions on two victims’ hands which had initially been interpreted as defensive wounds were actually found to have been caused by rats. Birds can also be a nuisance; their tendency to remove the eyes from cadavers can make identification exponentially more difficult.

Future Forensics

With the advent of new technologies, invasive autopsies are becoming less and less common. Technologies such as MRI scanning can highlight internal injuries and diseases without ever having to open the cadaver. Since 1999, virtual autopsies have been the standard practice in Switzerland, where 3D models are used to investigate wounds and decomposition. Thankfully chickens don’t tend to play much of a role in modern autopsies. As of yet, however, no replacement has been found for the maggots.

Sources and Further Reading

Hartnell, J., Medieval Bodies: Life, Death, and Art in the Middle Ages, (London, 2019)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_Ruxton#Autopsies

https://www.intechopen.com/books/post-mortem-examination-and-autopsy-current-issues-from-death-to-laboratory-analysis/postmortem-animal-attacks-on-human-corpses

https://medicalfuturist.com/tracing-the-future-of-forensic-medicine/

Laudanum: Opiates for All

Derived from the seeds of the poppy plant, opiates can take many forms. They are still used today for pain relief, and can be found in forms like morphine and codeine. In high concentrations, the substance becomes drugs like heroin, and, most obviously, opium. Though the widespread opium consumption during the nineteenth century has often been glamorized, the drug had devastating effects on almost everyone who came into contact with it, as its highly addictive nature did not become fully understood until the early twentieth century. Until then, opium could be purchased as a medicine in a variety of forms, and the most common of these was the patent medicine known as laudanum.

Medicinal Benefits

Opiates are still used in modern medicine because they do in fact provide a number of benefits. They are highly effective painkillers which are usually prescribed to treat severe pain following injury or surgery. It is also useful in suppressing the cough reflex and controlling diarrhea where other remedies have proved ineffective. It can also be used as a sedative, as it slows the heart rate and breathing. It is this latter effect that makes opium overdoses so dangerous, as this suppression of the respiratory system ultimately leads to coma and death.

Easy Access

Laudanum was easily available for people of all classes. 25 drops only cost a penny, and could be purchased by anyone, even children as young as 8 years old. The medicine was stocked at druggists, apothecaries and even pubs. Considering the frequency with which epidemics of cholera and dysentery cropped up during the 1800s, laudanum’s effectiveness against diarrhea helped to boost its popularity. Alongside its medicinal effects, laudanum was often favoured for its euphoric effects, and was actually cheaper than alcohols like gin, as it wasn’t taxed at the same rate. Given it’s ready supply, its plethora of uses, and its minimal cost, it is little wonder that it became the medicine of choice in treating almost any ailment imaginable.

A bottle of Laudanum, also referred to as ‘Opium Tincture’

Infant Doping

Laudanum was often used to treat childhood ailments like colic and diarrhea. It was also used as a sedative to keep babies quiet – this was particularly common among poor working mothers, who often needed to keep their infants with them as they worked. Accidental overdoses were not uncommon, and murders did occasionally occur using laudanum as the method of dispatch. However, few parents faced trial for these murders, as opium did not show up during autopsies and deaths were easily explained away in an era where childhood mortality rates were high. There were probably many more cases of infanticide by laudanum than were actually recorded; it was an easy way to get rid of an unwanted burden in a time where support for mothers and poor families was non-existant.

Recognising the Dangers

Medicines containing opium were banned from general sale in the UK under the 1920 Dangerous Drugs Act. By then, aspirin had become available, which was a much safer alternative as a painkiller. Though laudanum is technically still available in both the UK and the US, it is rarely prescribed except as a last resort, as it is still recognised as a highly addictive and dangerous substance.

Sources and Further Reading

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudanum

Poisonous Imposters: Toxic Plants and Deadly Mistakes

Most of us are warned as children not to eat things we don’t recognise. But what if you think you do recognise it? Sometimes things are not as they appear, and many plants which are either edible or otherwise harmless bear an uncanny resemblance to much more deadly specimens.

Daffodils

Although daffodils may not strike as a particularly dangerous plant, the bulbs are in fact poisonous. Though accidental ingestion is rare, it does occur. For example, in 2014 there were 27 recorded cases of poisoning caused by accidentally eating daffodil bulbs. The bulbs contain two toxic chemicals; lycorine and oxalates. When ingested, these cause vomiting, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. There can also be severe burning to the lips, tongue and throat. Though not usually fatal, many animals have died from eating daffodils. In the UK, accidental ingestion is more common among the Chinese community, as daffodil bulbs look extremely similar to chinese onions which are used in many dishes.

Hemlock

Known in Scotland as ‘dead man’s oatmeal’, hemlock can be mistaken for numerous edible herbs, most notably parsley. The white roots also look uncannily like wild carrot. Famously, Socrates was killed with a drink brewed with hemlock – the slowly paralysing effects of the plant apparently providing quite a gentle death. The sensation has been described as a heaviness in the limbs and a general feeling of fatigue. Other people have ingested the plant accidently – in 1845 a Scottish tailor died after eating a sandwich that contained hemlock, which had been mistaken for wild parsley by his children.

Deadly Nightshade

Deadly nightshade, as its name might suggest, is extremely toxic. Given the plants bright and delicious looking berries, it is unsurprising that they are mistaken for edible fruit. Nightshade contains atropine, an alkaloid which causes rapid heartbeat, hallucinations, and seizures when ingested. However, atropine also has some medicinal uses, such as in anesthetics and as an antidote to nerve gas.

It is most often children that accidentally ingest deadly nightshade berries, but sometimes adults are deceived as well. In 2013, a 49 year old woman from Turkey almost died after eating large quantities of what she believed to be ‘forest fruits’ – it was only when her family showed doctors what she had been snacking on that they realised she had in fact been eating deadly nightshade.

Aconite

In 1856 two guests at a dinner party in Dingwall were killed after consuming sauce that a servant had added aconite to after mistaking it for horseradish. Other unfortunate people have been poisoned after accidentally mistaking the root for wild carrots as, like hemlock, they look remarkably similar. The alkaloids in aconite paralyzes the nervous system and eventually stops the heart. The poison was well known to the ancient Greeks, and was even used experimentally in poisoned bullets during the Second World War.

Mistaken Identity

As most people buy their food from grocers and supermarkets today, cases of misidentification are much less common than they used to be. However, the increased popularity of foraging means that people may be more at risk of picking the wrong plant. It’s always recommended you go foraging with a qualified and experienced guide, and if there is any doubt at all, leave it well alone!

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.poison.org/articles/2015-mar/daffodils

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31176748

Stewart, A., Wicked Plants; The A-Z of Plants that Kill, Maim, Intoxicate and otherwise Offend, (2016)

Demirhan A, Tekelioğlu ÜY, Yıldız İ, et al. Anticholinergic Toxic Syndrome Caused by Atropa Belladonna Fruit (Deadly Nightshade): A Case Report. Turk J Anaesthesiol Reanim. 2013;41(6):226-228. doi:10.5152/TJAR.2013.43

Epizootics – A Short History of Cattle Plagues

It has been almost 30 years since Mad Cow Disease caused a national and international panic. Mad Cow Disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy) is believed to have entered the bovine food chain when bones from infected sheep were ground into animal feed as a nutritional supplement. Though the resulting neurological disease caused by consuming infected beef was responsible for relatively few deaths, the panic the crisis caused had a devastating impact on farmers and their livestock. However, mad cow disease was not the first cattle plague to sweep across the country.

Rinderpest

Diseases and infections were well known to farmers even before the advent of modern understanding of germ theory and immunology. Cattle plagues were a recurring feature of 18th and 19th century agriculture, with epidemics of a disease now known as Rinderpest sweeping across Britain and mainland Europe. The virus caused a high fever along with ulcers and a discharge of bloody mucus. Though Rinderpest didn’t affect humans, dairy and meat from diseased animals was not fit for consumption, and the disease had a mortality rate as high as 90%. Once infected, entire herds could be wiped out in the space of a week.

Dodging the Slaughter

Epidemics often took a long time to stamp out. For example, an outbreak in Essex and London took 13 years to eradicate. This was in part due to non-compliance with the government’s immediate slaughter policy. While some compensation was offered, it was not nearly enough to match the market value of the cows. Faced with the prospect of losing entire herds, many farmers sought to save their livelihoods as best they could, and would often gamble on their animals’ recovery instead of shooting them. Widespread falsification of certificates and papers meant that potentially infected cattle were still being transported and sold before they could be declared valueless.

Mad Cow Disease

When cases of Mad Cow Disease began to appear during the 1980s, the national response was similar to the outcry almost 100 years prior. BSE was just as severe as rinderpest had been, but it was even more dangerous because it could also affect humans. Eating beef infected with mad cow disease could lead to Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, an incurable neurological condition that caused severe dementia, including loss of motor coordination, personality changes, and blindness. Many sufferers lost the ability to walk or even speak coherently. The condition is fatal, and to this day no-one is known to have lived longer than 2 and half years after contracting it.

Although the government quickly put a slaughter policy in place, many farmers were unwilling to have entire herds destroyed as it was not clear how contagious the virus really was. By 1990, there were over 19,000 confirmed cases on almost 10,000 farms across Britain. The epidemic reached its peak in 1993 when there were 100,000 confirmed cases. In total, it’s estimated that 180,000 cattle were affected – compared to the 4.4 million cattle that were slaughtered in an effort to curb the disease.

The Wider Impact

Though the relative number of deaths was small, the main impact of the mad cow disease panic was on farmers. More farmers committed suicide from the impact of mad cow disease than the 178 deaths caused by BSE infection. Entire livelihoods were destroyed, valuable and much loved cattle lost, and the public mistrust of British beef took a long time to go away. Indeed, the EU did not lift the ban on exporting British beef for 10 years, with some countries extending the ban long after this. Though the large scale slaughter of potentially infected herds was arguably necessary, there is still lingering anger over the policy.

Sources and Further Reading

Fisher, John R. “Cattle Plagues Past and Present: The Mystery of Mad Cow Disease.” Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 33, no. 2, 1998, pp. 215–228

Nurse, Stuart. “The Sad Saga of Mad Cow Disease.” Alternatives, vol. 18, no. 3, 1992, pp. 9–10

Balter, Michael. “Tracking the Human Fallout from ‘Mad Cow Disease’.” Science, vol. 289, no. 5484, 2000, pp. 1452–1454

Broad, John. “Cattle Plague in Eighteenth-Century England.” The Agricultural History Review, vol. 31, no. 2, 1983, pp. 104–115

https://ourworldindata.org/how-rinderpest-was-eradicated

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45906585#:~:text=The%20human%20form%20is%20known,have%20been%20attributed%20to%20vCJD.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bovine_spongiform_encephalopathy#Spread_to_humans

Murderous Elephants: The Bizarre Phenomenon of Circus Executions

Public executions were a common part of life throughout medieval Europe, and following the colonisation of the Americas during the 1500s, the practice soon made its way across the Atlantic. However, by the late 1800s most states had passed laws banning public execution for fear of the social repercussions they might have on an otherwise civilised public. Thereafter, in lieu of public executions of criminals, the American public satisfied its need for justice and retribution through the execution of animals that had ‘murdered’ their handlers.

Why Elephants?

Elephants were an exotic curiosity; known to be highly intelligent and capable of empathy, elephants were easily anthropomorphised with human qualities. Due to their enormous size and formidable strength, they were also viewed as an apt demonstration of man’s dominance over nature and thus the rightful order of the world. Though many captive elephants were beloved by audiences, there was no illusion that they were tame.

Elephants were therefore seen as both lovable and dangerous at the same time. Indeed, circuses often played up the danger of their captive elephants ‘going mad’ in order to inflate the bravado of their trade. Due to the stress of captivity, it was not uncommon for elephants to lash out at their handlers, or else become confused or scared during performances, causing numerous injuries and deaths. Perhaps in a bid to make sense of these deaths, and in an extension of the desire for bloodthirsty spectacle that was now denied by the lack of criminal executions, the public often demanded retribution against the ‘murderous beasts’. Between the 1880s and the 1920s, there were at least 36 cases of elephant executions carried out either by hanging, electrocution, or occasionally firing squad. Many of these were ticketed events, though some were conducted more like impromptu hunts when elephants escaped their captors.

Performance and Spectacle

Executions of dangerous elephants became as much about theatrical performance with a commercial interest as they were about crime and punishment. When an animal became considered too dangerous to be able to perform, circus owners would often stage the animals execution in order to recuperate their lost earnings.

Many different methods were employed to kill elephants who were considered to have become dangerous. Hanging was a common method, and contemporary observers often compared the practice to lynching. For example, in 1916 an elephant crushed its trainer during a parade in Tennessee, which was witnessed by a huge and horrified crowd. The crowd demanded vengeance, and the elephant was later hung from a railroad crane before a large group of spectators.

Execution by electricity was introduced to the US in 1890, and was considered to be the fastest and most humane method of carrying out the death sentence. However, criminal executions by electric chair were typically carried out behind closed doors. Although examples of the electric chair were already a popular sideshow at circuses and carnivals, few people had the opportunity to see such a device in action. The curiosity over this technological marvel only increased the public’s thirst to witness elephant executions.

In perhaps one of the most famous pachyderm executions, the Edison electricity company actually filmed the electrocution of Topsy the elephant at Coney Island in 1903. The film captured the moment the poor creature, having already been fed carrots laced with cyanide and had a rope tied around her neck (just in case), had over 6000 volts passed through her body. The film was later showcased at moving picture exhibitions around the country, and like many other elephant executions was widely reported on in newspapers and periodicals.

A still from the 1903 recording ‘Electrocuting an Elephant’

A Cruel Blip

Elephant executions became largely obsolete by around 1910, though did still occasionally occur in the Southern states as late as 1936. Societies protesting cruelty and inhumane treatment of animals became more and more prominent following the advent of the 20th century, and circus performances also fell out of fashion in favour of more modern forms of entertainment like cinema. Thankfully, the bizarre phenomenon was short-lived, and can be viewed as a moment when old ideas about punishment met new ideas about crime and justice, with a dash of morbid spectacle thrown in.

Sources and Further Reading

Wood, A. “‘Killing the Elephant’: Murderous Beasts and the Thrill of Retribution, 1885—1930.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, vol. 11, no. 3, 2012, pp. 405–444

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrocuting_an_Elephant

Dr Pirie: The X-Ray Martyr

X-rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation, which are commonly used as a diagnostic tool in clinical medicine. They were first discovered in 1895 by German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen, and it was immediately recognised that X-rays could be used in medicine. As well as providing clear images of broken bones, X-rays can also be used to detect abscesses, tumours, and lung problems. Dr George Alexander Pirie was one of many early pioneers of research into how X-rays could be used in medicine, and is today known as one of the X-ray and Radium Martyrs who sacrificed their own health for the benefit of others.

Pioneering Research

Pirie began his research into radiography at Dundee Royal Infirmary, where he was a resident physician. He began experimenting with radiography and X-rays in 1896, researching how the newly discovered rays could be used for clinical medicine for treatment and diagnosis. He established the first Electrical Department at the hospital, making the Royal Infirmary at Dundee one of the most advanced hospitals at the time. X-ray images gave doctors an unprecedented way to look inside the body, meaning that diagnosis was not only much quicker but also much more accurate.

Paying the Price

In the early days of this research, however, the dangers of radiation exposure were not known, and researchers often exposed themselves to extremely high doses of radiation. For example, in order to test the clarity of the X-ray images, radiographers would usually test the setup using their own hands, meaning they suffered prolonged and repeated exposure. By 1905, Pirie had begun to experience bouts of burning pain in his hands, and he often found that his skin frequently cracked open. Although he used bandages and mustard oil to try and alleviate the pain, by 1925 his hands were riddled with tumours, and he had to have both amputated at the wrists.

Early researchers used no protective equipment when working with X-rays

In addition to the loss of his hands, Pirie also lost the majority of his sight due to radiation exposure. He became totally blind in one eye and had very reduced vision in the other. By 1926, after 30 years of constant radiation exposure, he was no longer able to work and was forced to retire. In recognition of his work, he was given a generous pension, and was also awarded an annual grant of £200 a year from the Carnegie Hero Trust.

In Memoriam

Following his death in 1929, Pirie was one of 169 X-ray pioneers honoured on a permanent monument in Hamburg, which was unveiled in 1936. Even after the dangers of X-ray exposure became clear, Dr Pirie made an extraordinary sacrifice in undertaking his research, stating “I could never bring myself to cause others to take a risk that I would not take myself”. In true form to Pirie’s selfless nature, he even donated his own amputated hand to the pathology department at the hospital, where it is still held to this day.

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.dundee.ac.uk/museum/exhibitions/madetomeasure/xray/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Alexander_Pirie

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/x-ray/

Lock Up Your Dead: The Scottish Body Snatchers

During the 18th and 19th centuries, there was a huge demand for cadavers for medical schools. Scotland in particular became an epicentre for medical learning and research. However, there was a limited supply of cadavers available, as people were generally revolted by the idea of dissection. Additionally, the Murder Act of 1751 stipulated that those convicted of murder and other such heinous crimes would be dissected as an extra punishment following their execution. With this unsavoury association, it is little wonder that people were unwilling to donate bodies to medical science.

A Body Snatching Epidemic

With the influx of demand for cadavers, there was a huge spate of body snatching that led to the introduction of a number of measures to try and prevent it. Many graves around anatomy schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen can be found today which are surrounded by iron cages, known as mortsafes. These were not, as some people believe, to keep the occupant at bay if they happened to rise from the dead, but to deter graverobbers from disinterring the deceased and selling their body off for dissection. The mortsafe typically consisted of iron bars, either in one piece or in sections which could be padlocked together to surround the coffin. Sometimes, a large stone slab would also be placed over the grave, ensuring that the body could not be accessed. Most mortsafes were temporary measures; after a few weeks the body would be too badly decomposed to be of any use to anatomists.

Body snatching caused particular outrage in Scotland, where some Christians believed that the dead would be unable to rise again with the Second Coming if their bodies were incomplete. Indeed, the Catholic Church specifically forbade dissection. This combined with the general reverence for the dead that somewhat typified the Victorian era meant that publicised cases of body snatching caused national outrage.

The Burke and Hare Case

Thanks to the introduction of mortsafes, graverobbing was becoming increasingly difficult. Some therefore graduated from stealing corpses to creating corpses themselves. In 1828, William Burke and William Hare, two Irish immigrants living in Edinburgh, were arrested on 16 counts of murder over the course of 12 months. It seemed that the two had been making a living selling cadavers to Robert Knox, one of the most imminent anatomical lecturers in Scotland. The pair had been luring unsuspecting victims to their homes, plying them with alcohol before smothering them to death.

Only Burke was found guilty of the murders, as Hare testified against him in exchange for immunity. Ironically, part of Burke’s punishment was public dissection, in accordance with the Murder Act of 1751. Huge crowds turned out to see the dissection, and almost caused a riot in order to gain access. Burke’s skeleton is on display at Edinburgh Medical School.

A Short-Lived Need

Mortsafes had quite a short run of popularity. After being invented in 1816, the Anatomy Act of 1832 meant that medical schools had a much easier time obtaining bodies via legal means, and grave robbing (and with it, the need for mortsafes) almost instantly died out. Many mortsafes were melted down or repurposed, though a few remain in churchyards throughout Scotland to this day.

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.abdn.ac.uk/bodysnatchers/mortsafes.php

https://wellcomecollection.org/articles/WxfvsiQAACcAY5Kp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Hare_murders

Unwelcome Guests: Our Friend the Tapeworm

Tapeworms are a parasitic organism which lives in the digestive system of their host. Humans have been aware of them since at least 384 b.c, where it was described by Greek philosopher Aristotle. There are several different species, and infection usually happens when a person eats undercooked beef, pork or fish. Fortunately, modern medicines can kill the unwelcome invaders in less than 3 days. However, people throughout history have found rather novel ways of removing them, and in some cases have even swallowed them deliberately.

Diet Fads

An American advertisement for ‘sanitized tapeworms’

During the 1800s, as today, achieving the perfect figure was a high priority for many women. Though many figure altering devices were already available, including the rib-crushing corset and the backside-boosting bustle, dietary aids were a newly emerging market. Joining a host of other worrying Victorian health fads, the use of tapeworms to aid weight loss is perhaps one of the most bizarre. Advertisements for ‘sanitized tapeworms’ began appearing in women’s magazines around 1900, which when swallowed purported to aid weight loss with ‘no ill effects’. Of course, those hosting the unsavoury guest could expect abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, and increased appetite alongside their weight loss. It’s difficult to know how popular the diet was, but the practice has not completely faded away. Indeed, many disreputable online clinics still offer tapeworms as a weight loss treatment.

A Curious Patent

Of course, not everyone who had a tapeworm necessarily wanted to keep it, and various methods were used to try and kill or remove them. One of the strangest ideas to emerge was that of the ‘tapeworm trap’, which was patented in 1854 as an alternative to the more standard remedies of powdered tin, calomel, and petroleum. The trap consisted of a small hollow tube made of gold, which was attached to a piece of string. The trap was loaded with cheese and then swallowed by the patient. The cheese would supposedly temp the tapeworm into the stomach, where it would be caught in the trap. The worm could then be pulled out through the mouth.

While the contraption itself was deeply unpleasant, it was also entirely pointless, as tapeworms live in the intestines rather than the highly acidic environment found in the stomach. Needless to say, the contraption did not catch on, partly because as well as patenting the device itself, the inventor, Alpheus Myers also patented the method for its use, meaning he was the only person in the world who was permitted to use it. Not exactly a savvy business strategy.

Record Breaking Parasites

Though improved health and hygiene standards today mean that tapeworm infections are increasingly rare, they do still occur. As the host can often be unaware that they have an uninvited visitor in their gut, tapeworms can often reach extraordinary length before they are discovered. The longest tapeworm removed from a human on record measures a staggering 8.8 metres long (just shy of 29 feet), and is currently on display at the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Tokyo.

Sources and Further Reading

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-horrifying-legacy-of-the-victorian-tapeworm-diet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cestoda

Morris, T., The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth and other Curiosities from the History of Medicine, (2018)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/meguro-parasitological-museum