September 4th 1791 saw the birth of the notorious Dr Robert Knox, he is most infamous for buying bodies from Messrs Burke and Hare.
Prior to his infamous involvement in the Burke and Hare murders, Robert Knox was a renowned lecturer of anatomy, esteemed zoologist, ethnologist and doctor. Knox was born to Mary (nee Scherer) and Robert Knox, a mathematics and natural philosophy teacher. Knox studied at The Royal High School before joining the University of Edinburgh in 1810. During his time at the University he was twice president of the undergraduate club the Royal Physical Society.
Following his graduation in 1814, Knox joined the army where he was posted to Brussels to attend to the wounded from the Battle of Waterloo.
On returning to Scotland in 1822, following stays in both France and South Africa, he was a key force in establishing a museum of anatomy and pathology at the College of Surgeons. Knox became Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh during which time he was involved in setting up a major anatomical school where he was famed for his gory lectures.
Prior to the 1832 Anatomy Act, the main supply of medical cadavers were those sentenced to death and dissection by the courts. The ability to acquire legal corpses became more difficult as anatomy’s importance grew and the number of executions decreased.
William Hare fell into murder by chance after a fellow lodger died owing Hare a debt. After a tip off by one of Knox’s students that he would be well paid, Hare delivered the corpse to Knox and saw an opportunity to make money. With his accomplice William Burke, they began murdering vagrants and selling their bodies to Knox for dissection. Burke and Hare were eventually tried for 3 of the 16 murders. Contrary to what you have probably thought till now, they were not bodysnatcher, graverobbers or “resurrection men” They are not known to have dug up one single body.
To avoid the gallows, Hare gave evidence against Burke who was sentenced to hanging and dissection. Burke’s skeleton can still be viewed at the University’s anatomical museum.
When the news broke concerning the murders in December 1828, Knox was widely assumed to be complicit, though his students and colleagues defended him. He was caricatured for dealing with murders, and likened to a butcher who preferred his meat "fresh." Mindful of the libel laws, the press referred to him with every possible play on "Knox," "noxious," and "obnoxious." Though he taught in Edinburgh for many years after the scandal, his reputation never fully recovered.
We will never know what Knox thought during that fateful academic year of 1827-1828. But we do know that, though formally qualified to practice medicine and surgery, he was not, in fact, a practicing doctor. Instead he devoted all his time and energy to anatomical teaching and research. His goal was eventually to become professor at Edinburgh University, but to succeed he would have to outdo many rivals. He had only been teaching independently for a year before Burke and Hare knocked on his door with their first dead body. It is likely he had already established a network consisting of Edinburgh body-snatchers as well as agents in who sent cadavers from Glasgow, Manchester, and Dublin. Bodies sold by Burke and Hare cost about the same, and were in much better shape.
Knox needed dead bodies not only for students, but also for his ambitious research program in human and comparative anatomy. He had become the Curator of the Museum of the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, and he was also in the process of seeing several books on anatomy through publication. Since he was so busy, he delegated a part of upkeep of his dissecting establishment at Number 10, Surgeon's Square, to his staff. This included his brother, Frederick John Knox, as the curator of his personal anatomical museum, his technician and doorkeeper, David Paterson, who dealt most directly with purveyors of cadavers like Burke and Hare, and at least three assistants, William Fergusson, Thomas Wharton Jones, and Alexander Miller. All three went on to successful careers in medicine; Fergusson became a prominent professor of surgery in London and was made a baronet in 1866.
Knox continued to be pushed out by the medical establishment, eventually moving to London where he published several books.
He died in Hackney, London, in 1862.
There’s a wee bit more on Knox here https://www.thenational.scot/news/18101364.robert-knox-remembering-surgeon-killer-connections/
