h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Burke and Hare, the Bodysnatchers - A698033
Author: Dastardly, a closet gargoyle (Boo, hiss) - U168963

It's morbid, and I didn't realise quite how many footnotes I'd written in. Nevertheless, I think the whole episode is an important piece of history and needed covering.

nice one!

a couple of niggles, the first paragraph took me four attempts to get through trying to work out who was married to whom. perhaps splitting it in tow would help

references to 'this period in history' really should mention an actual time period. even if it's as vague as the 18th century.


also, just to be a pain, i'd like to see a brief explanation of why the disection of the human body was banned,(religious befliefs dating back hundreds of years) the contemporary state of knowledge of anatomy (appauling) and also a quick mention of what the docotrs were hoping to learn from corpses, wht sort of equipment and medicine they had available at the time. for example, how far along were anaesthetics.....leading to syrgery. this has implcations for what they were actually studying in the body.

also theres a footnote about all the working calsses being total alcoholics which you will proabbly have to reword because i doubt it will get past the editor like that.

good work, ignore me if you like

FABT

Hi Dastardly!

Nice entry!

I think you might want to find the link here - '[find link to medschool]'.

Also I seem to remember the crowd baying 'Burke 'em' to the other two and that 'Burke' became another word for murdering (or it may have specifically have been murder by strangulation or smothering).

OK- I'll redo the first paragraph.

I'll also add a better summary of dissection laws and the reasons behind them, but that'll take time.

Drinking was fashionable, and also the water wasn't very good. But the footnote does seem bigoted- I'll remove it pronto.

I didn't even realise I'd left out the dates- although at the start I seem to have put 1927, instead of 1827 .

#Also I seem to remember the crowd baying 'Burke 'em' to the other two #

I had no idea you were so old....

To 'Burke' is to suffocate. It's mostly fallen out of use though. Should I put it in the article anyway?

yeah, why not. just mention it's antiquated and fallen mostly out of use.

FABT

Fine article. There is an excellent (underrated) film about Burke and Hare called 'The Flesh and the Fiends': http://us.imdb.com/Title?0052811. Well worth a late Friday evening spent eating fava beans with a nice Chianti.

I liked this. Easy to read, and enough background info to make sense .

By the way, anyone visiting the pub named after these two in Edinburgh, should make sure they know what they're letting themselves in for

Hi, Dastardly!

This is a really good entry. I think it would be a good idea to put in one or two dates in the Capture section: when did the last murder take place? When were they arrested and tried? etc.

A couple of points about the layout:

I notice you only type a space on one side of a dash. I'm inclined to use a lot of dashes in punctuation myself, but, as far as I know, they should have a space on each side.

I think that a few of your footnotes could be included back into the main text.

If you're still looking for a link,
http://www.med.ed.ac.uk/history/archnote2.htm is a page about the anatomy museum at the Universtiy of Edinburgh.

Anyway, it's an excellent entry. Well done!

Azara

Hi Dastardly,

Good article. Definitely worthy of inclusion.

Azara is right about dashes. Also, 'Her disappearance was very sudden, with the explanation for her disappearance very faltering' repeats 'disappearance' - can you re-word to avoid this?

Bung the link in and it should be pretty much ready for inclusion.

What happens in the Buke and Hare in Edinburgh then? (I think I walked past it once.)

Gif

Thanks for the link I've added a few more dates now and sorted out the repetition of disappearance.

I was going to try and avoid mentioning any films if at all possible.

Try trying 'Burke and Hare' and 'pub' into a search engine

Well, that's one way of studying anatomy

, Dastardly!

The changes are very neatly done - good work!
I'd be very happy to see this go into the Edited Guide now...


Azara

Ah, I see ... (frantically restraining a pun on body-snatching).

But otherwise, I agree, this article is ready for Editing.

Gif

Good grief, what a cast of characters there is in Peer Review at the moment! I've only just got over reading the Entry on Jack the Ripper!

Great Entry. It looks ready for the Edited Guide to me!

we need a links page for all the nasty victorian murderers who have entries on h2g2

fABT

What a disturbing idea

I've recommended this entry for inclusion into the edited guide, and its being accepted, so is on its way to becoming edited. I thought this entry was well written, and particularly interesting. Well Done Dastardly!

for Dastardly!

Azara

Chianti and fava beans all round.

Gif

Thankyou Silverfish.