The Morthouse

This is a watchtower in Dalkeith Cemetery, near Edinburgh, Scotland. It was built in 1827, when folks—particularly in Scottish communities near the medical schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Aberdeen—felt a real need to have their dead protected, and those with enough money were able to do something about it.

The well publicized crimes of the Williams Burke and Hare in 1827 and 1828—men who escalated body-snatching from mere grave-robbing to actual murder—didn’t help, either. Some communities built structures called morthouses to temporarily house the dead as they made their journey from freshness to putrefaction. This one is in Udny, in Aberdeenshire:

This particular morthouse is unique because of its clever design. Inside was a sort of lazy Susan for the dead. From Geograph: 

This circular stone building houses a revolving wheel upon which a coffin would be placed and kept securely under lock and key. When another body was deposited, the wheel would be turned slightly to accommodate the new coffin. Eventually, when a coffin had been rotated one full revolution, it could safely be buried because the corpse would be sufficiently decomposed as to be of no use to the body-snatchers.

Top image: Photograph by Kim Traynor, via Wikipedia.
Bottom image: Lynette and Malcolm Johnson, via Geograph.

midnightgallery:

Specimen jar containing piece of William Burke’s brain, United Kingdom, 1821-1870

“Sealed in this small glass specimen jar is said to be a piece of the brain of William Burke (1792-1829). He was one half of the infamous Edinburgh body snatchers known as Burke and Hare. Burke was executed in 1829 and museum records state it was, “presented by the doctor who used Burke’s body for anatomical purposes, in a sealed glass tube 3” long”. Burke and his accomplice William Hare murdered at least 16 people. They delivered the bodies to anatomy teacher Dr Robert Knox. The pair taking advantage of the lack of available cadavers for anatomical classes in Edinburgh and the high prices paid for those that were presented. The two body snatchers were eventually caught. Limited evidence saw Hare offered immunity from prosecution if he testified against Burke. This he did, and Burke was hung on 28 January, 1829. His body was publicly dissected at the Edinburgh Medical College – the same institution to which he delivered his victims.”

(via unnaturalist)