of trickery the wives of the men were often employed, as their application was attended to with less suspicion, and it was never difficult to impose on the parochial officials, who were always anxious to avoid the expense of burying the deceased. Subjects were thus occasionally procured, but they were more frequently obtained by pretending relationship to persons dying without friends in hospitals and workhouses. As the bodies thus obtained were much fresher than those which had been buried, they produced generally, independent of the teeth, as much as twelve guineas each.
At the commencement of a new term at the hospitals, the lecturers on anatomy were beset by the leading dealers in subjects, and "fifty pounds down, and nine guineas a body," was often acceded to. The larger sum down secured to the lecturer the exclusive supply of that dealer's wares. The competition for subjects was great, and in some cases twenty pounds were paid for a single corpse in good condition.
Stoke Church and yard lay solitary amid waste land. It had a wall round it, but no houses very near, and there were no oil lamps burning in the road that passed it.
A strong suspicion was entertained that the graves there had been rifled, and were so continually, and it was proposed to the parish authorities to have lamps and organize a night watch. But the officials shrank from the expense, and many people reasoned that it were well to allow the resurrectionists to get bodies from graves, as bodies the surgeons must have, rather than run the risk of inducing these scoundrels to imitate the proceedings of Burke by killing individuals for the purpose. Within a stone's throw of Mill Bridge was a commodious residence called Mount Pleasant, with Stonehouse Lake or Creek on
