esurrectionist is written on 16 leaves, but is,
unfortunately, imperfect. The first entry is November 28th, 1811, and the
last December 5th, 1812. There are no entries in May, June, and July;
during these months there would be little demand for subjects, as the
sessions of the Anatomical Schools ran from October to May. Besides this,
the light nights would interfere with the work of the men. The entry under
the date February 25th refers to this: "the moon at the full, could not
go." The state of the moon was of great importance to these men in their
work; the writer of the Diary has on one of the pages copied out the
"Rules for finding the moon on any given day," and has set out the epact
for 1812 and 1813.

There is no clue in the Diary itself as to the name of the writer, and,
unfortunately, Sir Thomas Longmore[22] was quite unable to remember the
name of the individual from whom he received it. Feeling was very strong
against the men who had been engaged in the resurrection business, and
therefore, when information was required from them, every effort was made
to keep their names secret. As late as 1843, when the _Life of Sir Astley
Cooper_ was published, the name of this man was carefully concealed,
though most of the other members of the gang were freely spoken of under
their full names. Bransby Cooper[23] quotes a written statement made by
this man to the effect that he was in Maidstone Gaol in October, 1813.
Enquiry at the gaol has, however, failed to find any mention of him; the
original document is not forthcoming, and it is very probable that there
is a mistake as regards the date. In this statement he is called Josh.
N----, and Bransby Cooper speaks of him as N. There is a letter on
"Body-snatchers" in the _Medical Times_, 1883, vol. i. p. 343, signed,
"Your Old Correspondent"; the writer of the letter was, in all
probability, Mr. T. Madden Stone, who had been a correspondent of the
journal in question from the time of its foundation. Mr. Stone had a
valuable collection of papers and autographs, and his letter is really a
reprint of a paper in his possession relating to payments made to the
resurrection-men. In it occurs the following passage: "N.B., Sir Astley
Cooper great friend to Naples." Mr. Stone presented a large number of
papers and letters to the Royal College of Surgeons, but this particular
one is not in the collection. It is curious that Bransby Cooper makes no
special mention of Naples in his book