About Robert Knox
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The Man Who 'Bought the Beef' From Burke and Hare: Scottish Anatomist Dr Robert Knox
Dr. Robert Knox was a Scottish surgeon, zoologist and anatomist who was born on September 4th, 1791 to parents Mary Sherer and Robert Knox who was a teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh.
After attending high school, Knox began studying at Edinburgh University in 1810 and became a pupil of the famous anatomist, John Barclay. Knox received his M.D. from Edinburgh in 1814 with a thesis that was so well-reasoned and thought out that it was published in the Edinburgh Medical Journal. Following graduation he joined the army as an assistant surgeon. His work at the Brussels military hospital made it clear to him that comprehensive training in anatomy was critical if surgery was ever to be successful. Although he was a brilliant anatomist and surgeon, Knox was also irritable and highly critical of others, in particular the surgical work of Dr. Charles Bell with regard to casualties at the Battle of Waterloo.In 1821 Knox returned to Edinburgh and almost immediately left to study in Paris for a year. He studied anatomy there and it was at this time that he met and befriended Georges Cuvier and Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire who would remain heroes of his throughout his life.
Knox returned again to Edinburgh around Christmas 1822 and the following year he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and soon afterwards he submitted a plan to the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh for a Museum of Comparative Anatomy which was approved. Within a year he was appointed Conservator over the new museum.
Between the years 1826 to 1840 he ran Barclay's anatomy school in Surgeon's Square where his lectures, unlike those of his peers, were delivered to packed houses of enthusiastic and adoring students. Quite apart from Knox's unorthodox style of teaching, what appealed to his students was the fact that he guaranteed that all of them would have the opportunity to dissect a human corpse.
In Britain at that time only the corpses of convicted felons hanged on the gallows were allowed to be dissected, thus creating a shortage of bodies upon which medical students could learn the practical skills of their profession. As a consequence body snatching became a huge problem due to the fact that anatomists were willing to pay others to supply the much needed demand. In November 1827, two men, William Burke and William Hare, recognising the profits that could be made from supplying medical schools with cadavers, devised a plan to murder innocent Edinburgh citizens and supply their fresh bodies to medical men for dissection. Their plan took them to the door of the anatomy school of Dr. Knox and over the next year the pair made regular trips there which resulted in them being paid handsomely. Burke and Hare were eventually caught and the resulting scandal ruined Knox's career in Edinburgh. His role in the events was immortalized in a popular rhyme that was concocted at the time:
Up the Close and doun the stair;
But and ben wi' Burke and Hare:
Burke's the butcher, Hare's the thief,
And Knox the boy who buys the beef.
In 1842, after the death of his wife, Knox moved to London to work as a lecturer and in 1854 he volunteered once again as an army surgeon but was turned down because of his age. Life became more difficult for Knox after the Burke and Hare scandal in Edinburgh as many did not believe his protest that he had been oblivious to Burke and Hare's criminal activity and he worked for a time on medical journalism, lectures and various publications. He became a pathologist at the Free Cancer Hospital at Brompton, later to become the Royal Marsden Hospital. He also had a general practice and, between lecturing and writing, he kept himself busy although he never again enjoyed the popularity which he once had in Edinburgh or had the same numbers of pupils attending his lectures.
Dr. Robert Knox died in his sleep on December 9th 1862. Although probably best remembered for his connection to the Burke and Hare scandal, nevertheless he was a brilliant surgeon and anatomist and his anatomical theories were, during his day, far ahead of their time.
Leona Tyrie is the producer of "The Body Merchants: The Shocking Truth about Anatomy Murder", a documentary which recounts the horrifying true story of the serial killers Burke and Hare, examines the socio-legal problems of Georgian Britain which not only spawned the body trade, but also gave rise to murder... and culminates by exposing the terrible truth that such crimes are not confined to history.