Religatum de Pelle Humana - Jeremy Norman's HistoryofScience.com

138 Bibliologia Comica
The disposaI of the skin of Thomas Weems (executed in
1819) has already been noted. In 1824 one Thurtell was executed
for the murder of Weare, and it is believed that a
large roll of his skin, or, if not his, that of Arthur ThistIewood,
the Cato Street conspirator, was in the possession of a fellow
of Jesus College, Oxford, at one time during the last century. 68
It was said to have been admirably tanned and to ~esemble
a very superior buckskin. Cantabs as weIl as Oxonians have
displayed a fondness for anthropodermic binding. Cim alleged
that one Queensby, a Greek scholar of Cambridge, ordered
that upon his death he be Hayed to provide a home for the
Iliad, but it is not known whether his wishes were fulfilled. 69
At least a part of William Burke's skin found its way into
a library, even though not on the back of a book. After his
execution, the publisher of his trial secured a portion of his
skin, tanned it, and distributed small pieces to his clients. A
portion of it, dyed dark blue, was placed in the extraordinary
collection of papers relating to Burke and Hare which was
formed for Walter Scott and placed in the library at Abbotsford.
70 In 1830, one year after Burke's execution, rat-catcher
George Cudmore atoned with his life in the Devon County
Jail for the murder of his spouse. 71 W. Clifford, book-seller of
Exeter, somehow got hold of his skin after it had been tanned
at the Devon and Exeter Hospital and used it years later to
bind Tegg's edition of Milton (1852). This volume passed into
the hands of the Exeter colleetor Ralph Sanders, and today
it is in the Albert Memorial Library of that city.
In May, 1871, Lord H. haunted the boulevards and alleys
of Paris for three days with a sizeable amount of pounds
sterling in his pocket looking for an informant who would
secure for him the cadaver of a female agitator who was to be
executed by· a nring squad. His intention was to Hay the carcass
and deliver the hide to the binder Trautz-Bauzonnet with
instructions to use it to cover the two volumes of the first
edition of Le portier des chartreux. But the hapless peer failed
in his mission and received instead a slug of lead in his lower
extremity which confined him to his bed for three months. 72