anatomical class, for showing an affectionate regard for their great teacher."
Dr. Knox could have brought his enemies to strict account, and obtained heavy damages for their foul libels, but he preferred the policy of forbearance, as he had that of silence, and to leave the matter to be determined when the excitement should cease. So he kept on steadily with his work. One night, when a large class had assembled to hear him, the proceedings were interrupted by the yells and threats of an outside crowd, so that the students became alarmed. Knox, perceiving the growing restlessness of the audience, paused, and remarked: "Gentlemen, you are disquieted by these noises, to which no doubt you attach a proper meaning. Do not be alarmed; it is my life, not yours, they seek. How little I regard these ruffians you may well judge, for, in spite of daily warnings, and the destruction of my property, I have met you at every hour of lecture during the session; and I am not aware that my efforts to convey instruction have been less clear or less acceptable to you." This statement was received with such cheers as never before rang through a class-room in Edinburgh; and, amid all his troubles and trials, he found his only solace in the approval and affection of his students.
Dr. Knox at length broke his long silence by a letter to the Caledonian Mercury, of which the following is a part:
"Sir: I regret troubling either you or the public with any thing personal, but I cannot be insensible of the feelings of my friends, or the character of the profession to which I have the honor of belonging. Had I alone been concerned, I should never have thought of obtruding on the public by this communication.
"I have a class of above 400 pupils. No person can be at the head of such an establishment, without necessarily running the risk of being imposed upon by those who furnish the material of their science to anatomical teachers; and, accordingly, there is hardly any such person who has not occasionally incurred odium or suspicion from his supposed accession to those violations of the law, without which anatomy can scarcely now be practised. That I should have become an object of popular prejudice, therefore, since mine happened to be the establishment with which Burke and Hare chiefly dealt, was nothing more than what I had to expect. But, if means had not been purposely taken, and most keenly persevered in, to misrepresent facts and to influence the public mind, that prejudice would at least have stood on right ground, and would ultimately have passed away, by its being seen that I had been exposed to a mere misfortune, which would almost certainly have occurred to anybody else who had been in my situation.
"But every effort has been employed to convert my misfortune into positive and intended personal guilt of the most dreadful character. Scarcely any individual has ever been the object of more systematic or atrocious attacks than I have been. Nobody acquainted with this place requires to be told from what quarter these have proceeded.
"I allowed them to go on for months without taking the slightest notice of them; and I was inclined to adhere to this system, especially as the public
