The Sun.
London, England, 1829-03-23 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE CALEDONIAN MERCURY.

regret troubling either you or the public with
any thing personal ; but I cannot be insensible of the feel-
ings of my friends, or of the character of the profession to
which I have the honour 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 spon by those who fur-
nish 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 sup-
posed 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, there-
fore, 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 misre-
present facts, and to inflame the public mind, that preju-
dice 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 any body else who had been in
my situation.
But every effort has been employed to convert my mis-
fortune 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 attacks 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 authorities, by never
charging me with any offence, gave the only attestation
they could that they had nothing to charge me with. But
my friends interfered for met Without consulting me
they directed an agent to institute the most rigid and un-
sparing examination into the facts. I was totally unac-
quainted with this gentleman ; but I understand that in
naming Mr. Ellis, they named a person whose character is
a sufficient pledge for the propriety of his proceedings.
The result of his inquiries was laid before the Dean of
Faculty, and another Counsel, who were asked what ought
to be done. These gentlemen gave it as their opinion,
that the evidence was completely satisfactory, and that
there was no want of actionable matter; but that there
was one ground on which it was my duty to resist
the temptation of going into a Court of Law. This was,
that the disclosures of the most innocent proceedings even
of the best conducted dissecting-room, must always shock
the public, and be hurtful to science. But they recom-
mend that a few persons of undoubted weight and charac-
ter should be asked to investigate the matter, in order that
if I deserved it, an attestation might be given to me which
would be more satisfactory to my friends than any mere
statements of mine could be expected to be. This led to
the formation of a Committee, which was never meant by
me to be any thing but private. But the fact of its sitting
soon got into the newspapers, and hence the necessity
under which I am placed, of explaining how that proceed-
ing, in which the public has been made to take an interest,
has terminated.

I have been on habits of friendship with some of the
Committee; with others of them I have been acquainted;
and some of them I don't even yet know by sight. I took
no charge whatever of their proceedings. In order that
there might be no pretence for saying that truth was ob-
structed from fear, I gave a written protection to every
person to say.what he chose about or against me. The
extent to which this was, in some instances, taken advan-
tage of, will probably not be soon forgotten by those who
witnessed it.

After a severe and laborious investigation of about six
weeks, the result is contained in the following report,
which was put into my bands last night. It is signed by
every member of the Committee except one, who ceased to
act long before the evidence was completed.
I cannot be supposed to be a candid judge of my own
case, and therefore it is extremely probable that any opi-
nion of mine, on the last vie:v adopted by the Commit-
tee, is incorrect, and theirs right. If it be so, I most
willingly submit to the censure they have inflicted, and
shall hold it my duty to profit from it by due care here-
after. My consolation is, that I have, at least, not been
obstinate in my errors, and that no sanction has ever been
given, in any fair quarter, to the more serious imputations
by which it has been the interest of certain persons to
assail me. Candid men will judge of IAP according to the
situation in which I was placed: at tie time, and not ac-
cording to the wisdom which has unexpectedly been ac-
quired since. •
This is the very first time that I have ever made any
statement to the public in my own vindication,, and it
shall be the last. It would be unjust to the authors Of
the former calumnies to suppose that they would not re,::
new them now. I can only assure ',hem that, in to far as
1 am concerned, they will renew them in vain.
have the honour to be, &c. &c.
(Signed) R. KNOX.
Edinburgh, 10, Surgeon's•square, March 17, 1829.

REPORT OF THE COINIMITTE4;f,
The Committee who, at thee request of ir. Knox,
undertook to investigate thc truth or faelsehOnd of the 7a-
mou in circuliviion regarding Mini, have gone
tr.rs
vib9t eroltnvou,airdtat ilotydionioofofr'roaivittlion
enee, i t course nt
ofo awnh
ox h
t-
from evert quarter. They
awefurnished with all which they required
erorn knox himself, and though they have. failed .in
some attempts tu prccure evidence, they have in most
quarters succeeded in obtaining it, and especially from those
persons who. ha,ve been represented to them as having
poke the most confidently in support of these rumours

—and they have unanimously agreed on the following re-
port:-

I. The Committee have seen no evidence that Dr.
Knox or his Assistants knew that murder was committed
in procuring any of the subjects brought to his rooms, and
the Committee firmly believe that they did not.
2. On the question whether any suspicion of murder
at any time existed in Dr. Knox's mind, the Committee
would observe that there were certainly several circum-
stances (already known to the public), regarding some of
the subjects brought by Burke and flare, which, now that
the truth has come out, appear calculated to excite that
suspicion, particularly the very early period after death at
which they were brought to the rooms, and the absence
of external marks of disease, together with the opinion
previously expressed by Dr. Knox, in common with most
other anatomists, of the generally abandoned character of
persons engaged in this traffic. But on the other hand,
the Committee, after much anxious inquiry, have found
no evidence of their actually having excited it in the mind
of Dr. Knox, or of any other of the individuals who saw
the bodies of these unfortunate persons, prior to the appre-
hension of Burke.

These bodies do not appear in any instance to have
borne any external marks by which it could have been
known whether they had died by violence, or suddenly
from natural causes, or from diseases of short duration;
and the mode of protracted anatomical dissection, prac-
tised in this and other similar establishments, is such as
would have made it very difficult to ascerta n the causes
of death, even if special inquiry had been instituted with
that intentioa.

No evidence whatever has come before the Committee
that any suspicion of murder was expressed to Dr. Knox,
by any one, either of his assistants, or of his very numerous
class (amounting to upwards of 400 students), or other
persons who were in the practice of frequently visiting
his rooms; and there are several circumstances in his
conduct, particularly the complete publicity with which his
establishment was managed, and his anxiety to lay each
subject before the students as soon as possible after its re-
ception, which seem to the Committee strongly to indicate
that he had no suspicion of the atrocious means by which
they had been procured.
It has also been proved to the satisfaction of the Com-
mittee, that no mutilation or disfigurement of any kind
was ever practised with a view to conceal the features, or
abstract unseasonably any part of the body, the presence
of which might have facilitated detection ; and it appears
clearly that the subjects brought by Burke and Hare were
dissected in the same protracted manner as those procured
from any other quarter.
_ _

3. The Committee have thought it proper to inquire
further, whether there was any thing faulty or negligent
in the regulations under which subjects were received into
Dr. Knox's rooms, which gave or might give a peculiar
facility to the disposal of the bodies obtained by these
crimes; and on this point they think it their duty to state
their opinion fully.
It appears in evidence, that Dr. Knox had formed and
expressed an opinion, long prior to any dealings with Burke
and Hare, that a considerable supply of subjects for ana-
tomical purposes might be procured by purchase, and with-
out any crime, from the relations or connections of deceased
persons in the lowest ranks of society.
_ _

In forming this opinion, whether mistaken or not, the
Committee cannot consider Dr. Knox to have been cul-
pable. They believe that there .is nothing contradictory
to the law of the land in procuring subjects for dissection
in that way, and they know that the opinion which Dr.
Knox had formed on this point, though never acted on
to any extent in this country, has been avowed by others
of the highest character in the profession. But they think
that Dr. Knox acted on this opinion in a very incautious
manner.

This preconceived opinion seems to have led him to
give a ready ear to the plausible stories of Burke, who ap-
pears from all the evidence before the Committee to have
conducted himself with great address, and appearance of
honesty, as well in his conversations with Dr. Knox, as in
his more frequent intercourse with his Assistants; and al-
ways to have represented himself as engaged in negocia-
tions of that description, and occasionally to have asked
and obtained money in advance to enable him and his as
!iodate to conclude bargins.
Unfortunately, also, Dr. Knox had been led, apparently
in consequence of the extent and variety of his avocations,
to entrust the dealings with persons supplying subjects,
and the reception of the subjects brought, to his assistants
(seven in number), and to his door-keeper, indiscrimi-
nately. It appears also that he directed or allowed these
dealings to be conducted on the understanding (common to
him with some other anatomists), that it would only tend
to diminish or divert the supply of subjects to make any
particular inquiry of the persons bringing them, as to the
place and mode of obtaining them.

- In these respects the Committee consider the practice
which was then adopted in Dr. Knox's rooms (whatever be
the usage in this or other establishments in regard to sub-
jects obtained in the ordinary way) to have been very im-
proper in the case of persons bringing bodies which had
not been interred. They think that the notoriously bad
character of persons who generally engage in any such
traffic, in addition to the novelty and particular nature of
the system on which these men professed to be acting, un-
doubtedly demanded greater vigilance.
The extent, therefore, to which (judging from the evi-
dence which they have been able to procure), the Committee
think that Dr. Knox can be blamed on account of transac-
tions with Burke and Hare is, that by this laxity of the re-
gulations under which bodies were received into his rooms,
he unintentionally gave a degree of facility to the disposal
of the victims of their crimes, which, under better regula-
tions, would not have existed, and which is doubtless matter
of deep and lasting regret, not only to himself, but to all
who have reflected on the importance, and are therefore
intertsted in the prosecution of the study of anatomy. But,
while they point out this circumstauce as the only ground
of censure which they can discover in the conduct of Dr.
Knox, it is fair to observe, that perhaps the recent dis-
closures have made it appear reprehensible to many who
would not otherwise have adverted to its possUe conse-
quences. .

- March 13, 1829. (Signed)
J. RontsoN, (Esq. Sec. to the Royal Society) Chairman
M. P. BRowN, (Esq. Advocate)

JAMES RUSSELL, (Professor (.f Clinical Surgery)
J. SHAW STEWART, (Esq. Advocate)

W. P. Amami, Professor 'of the Theory of Physic)
GEO. BALLINOALL, (M.D. Professor of Military Surgery)
GEo. SINCLAIR, (Esq. yownger of 'abater)
W. HAMILTON, (Bart. Professor of Universal History)
Mos. ALLAN, (Esq. Banker.)

The Adonis, the Vulcan and Venus, and the
Arethusa, noble groups of sculpture, executed by Mr.
CAREW, for the Earl of EcaxatoliT's Gallery, at Petworth,
and now exhibiting by the E trl's permission at the King's
Mews, Charing-cross, have, during the last week, excited
considerable admiration. They are fine specimens of the
great and improving talents of the distinguished young
artist. The Noble Earl is said to have given Mr. CAREW
nearly ten thousand pounds for these productions,

The petition of certain of the inhabitants of
Neweastle-on-Tyne to the Legislature, for the repeal of all
the disabilities affecting our Roman Catholic fellow-sub-
jects, has received about %WO signatures, and (according
to the letter of a correspondent from that town) wa to be
transmitted to Lord GREY, on Saturday last, with a view
to its presentation to the Lords, a duplicate being also to
be forwarded to CUTIIBERT ELLISON, Esq., ALP., who is
charged with its presentation to the Commons.

LEEDS CortpoßimoN.--In our last Paper
we congratulated the public utrat the failure of a strenuous
and perseveziug attempt to bbtain a petition from this
loyal and respectable, body to Parliament, against the tnea
sure, introduced by Ministers for the settlement of the Ca-
tholic Question. During the whole of the last week the
ultras were seen bustling about the town in every direc-
tion, beating up for recruits„ and on Friday the Corpora-
tion Meeting took the Worshipful the Mayor in the
Chair, but such was.t.he paucity of the numbers, owing to
all the tu,oderate and influential men in the Corporation
liming designedly absented themselves, tiles no decision
could take place, and the meeting separated, after having
made a proclamation of their own weakness and intoler%
' nee., without effecting any thitvi—,-,-.4.e.,:ds Mercury,

MOUTH PLALTTRuao,—We earntstly call the
attention of such 4g. cur females 'who are in the habit of
walking out after. dark to tale fallowing alarming intelli-
6ce
gene@ paperPai;el was last week received at
the coach-of ,
as the address could not be de-
ci was', various,inquiries, opened by the com-
pe authorities. The contents were a letter, with the
":le illegible address, .along with six mouth-plaisters of
pthenerteat
remarkably tenacious quality. In the note, the writer ap-
prised his correspondent that the young woman had arrived
safe, in very good condition, and well packed. He had
therefore sent him six more plaisters, and hoped to be fa-
voured with another remittance soon, as be considered
Windsor an excellent place for carrying on the trade.—
N. B. Young women much preferred ; but in default of
them, middle-aged ones would do. The old not saleable
at any price. Be sure to pack, an before, in saw-dust.—
Windsor Express.
•