New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-11-15
PROTECTING THE DEAD.

The abduction of Mr.. Stewards body will
serve one good purpose, at least, If it had to
the amendment of the laws protecting the dead
So lax are they now in this State that it is
questionable whether the grave robbers, when
discovered, can receive any heavier punish
ment for their horrible crime than il they had
stolen a barrel of flour; a punishment, too,
which will be amply compensated by the re-
ward offered. Crime seems to have taken on
ghoul-like dispositions of late. Within few
short weeks, the bodies of two eminent citi-
zens in the West have been found in the
picking watts of colleges, and indications
are marked that the robbery OF cemeteries
by professional bOdy-snatchers is becoming
general and systematized business. A woman
has been sentenced for murder. committed
that she might sell the body; then comes
the theft of this especial corpse for ransom
and now we learn that only yesterday an Ohio
cemetery was robbed of the bodies of four
well-known citizens who had just been in
TERED, and were only rescued by faithful
police officer after chase of many miles.
The new trade opens all its branches to view
at once. What are we going to do to stop it
Must this new horror be added to death
NO WOuldu ntCUluE OHSi % nv" A'"NN Ss"'~
will now be certain whether the dead
body SO dear and sacred TO her sleeps
below, or is already stock in trade,
handled by the obscene vendors OF
corpses. There are countless poor widows
whose husbands are dear to them as was hers
with whom the whole country sympathizes to-
day, who cannot afford to pay thousands for
ransom, or any ransom at all. They cannot
afford even to keep guards over graves.
What protection are they to havef Some en-
inent physicians are already urging resource
10 cremation or 10 the use of quieklime as
the only safety against sacrilege OF the grave
But really, nobody likes to be forced into a
fiery furnace, dead or alive. A few sharp,
stringent laws would answer every purpose.
The present condition of affairs here was
more than paraleled in England in the early
part OF this century. BOdy-snatching was n
regular trade. so widely and skilfully prac-
tised that certain burial grounds were found
on examination to be filed with empty cofins.
The murders of Burke, the resurrecti0nist,
called public attention to the matter. Sir
Ashley Cooper, when summoned before COM
mIttee in Parliament, stated that 1.-THE law
was so lax and the grave robbers so skllful,
that there was no person, let his condition
ain life be what it might, whose body he.
"could not obtain, if he wished 1t, for dis
" secuon.p Parliament passed an act in 1882
so stringent that the protection OF the dead
Is now assured in Great Britain. In this
country we need, first. laws providing
against the robbery of the dead by the
agents of medical colleges. The fact is,
that the great medical schools of the cities
are not much to blame in this matter; they
are, as a rule amply supplied from the hos
pitals, almshouses, etc. The demand comes
from petty colleges, which, owing to their
position, are not able to provide their pupils
with chemical or mechanical appliances for
study, with Clinics, or even with material for
dissection, yet which turn out yearly swarms
of ignorant lads as NJ. DIS. The sooner they
are checked in such manufacture the better
for the country.
The next session Of the Legislatures of
New-York and Pennsylvania will, we hope,
bring the passage of laws which will render
the CRIME of body-snatching for ransom
unknown in the future.