ispose of the teeth to dentists. Harnett made enquiries of some of his
customers as to whether they had lately been offered teeth for sale, and
was shown some lately purchased from Holliss; these he was able to
identify. Holliss was at once given into custody, and was tried at
Croydon; he escaped transportation through a flaw in the indictment.
Whilst he was in gaol awaiting his trial, Harnett seized Holliss' house
and all his household furniture for a debt of L83. Holliss was afterwards
mixed up in a horse-stealing case, and ultimately died in great poverty
and wretchedness.

* * * * *

"N." or Joseph Naples, the writer of the Diary, is described by Bransby
Cooper as "a civil and well conducted man, slight in person, with a
pleasing expression of countenance, and of respectful manners." He was the
son of a respectable stationer and bookbinder, and in early life went as a
sailor into the King's service. He was for some time on board the
_Excellent_, and served in that vessel in the engagement off Cape St.
Vincent.[27] Then he returned to England, and, having spent all his
prize-money, went on a vessel cruising about the Channel. From this he ran
away and came back to London; here he obtained a situation as grave-digger
to the Spa Fields burial-ground. A man named White enticed Naples into the
resurrectionist business; this soon caused him to lose his situation.
White was stopped by the patrols, and a body was found in his possession.
He managed to escape, but it was proved that the body had been taken from
Spa Fields, and Naples was sentenced to two years' imprisonment. He
escaped, with another prisoner, from the House of Correction by making an
opening through a skylight in the roof, and afterwards scaling the outer
walls of the prison by means of a rope.

He was retaken through information given against him by Crouch, and it was
only by the mediation of Sir Astley Cooper with the Secretary of State
that Naples escaped additional punishment. In the list of prisoners
written out by himself, and printed by Bransby Cooper (_Life_, vol. 1. p.
423), Naples thus describes himself: "Jos{h}. N----[28] 'Resurgam Hommo,'
for trial."

The writing and spelling in the Diary show him to have been a man of
superior education to most of his class. He continued in the
resurrectionist business up to the time of the passing of the Anatomy Act,
when he was taken on as a servant in the dissecting-room of S