The Mayhem of "Paddington Fair Day"

The concept of the Paddington fair day is a little troubling to me. Although it was an important way of acquiring cadavers to Hunter and his fellow surgeons, it is quite barbaric. Immediately following the hanging of these criminals, Hunter, his fellow surgeons, and family and friends engage in a brawl for the corpses of these people hanging by their necks. In some cases, the criminals are not even completely dead, but quickly die due to the people pulling on their legs which snaps their necks. Loved ones and friends actually have to fight other people to give someone a proper burial. I understand how important a fresh cadaver can be to these surgeons in terms of the improvement of the overall understanding of the human anatomy. However this way of acquiring the bodies is disrespectful to the family and friends of the people who have just been hung. The main theme I took away from this reading from Knife Man was the extreme lengths that these surgeons like John Hunter are willing to go for their work. They are literally willing to fight and claw for these lifeless bodies that are so important to their work. Even if they lose the body to the crowd, they most likely will go dig up the body and steal it anyway. The length that Hunter is willing to go indicates to me that the human body is more than just work to Hunter, he idolizes it. He has this supreme fascination with the human anatomy that he will do whatever it takes to acquire a cadaver. We need to begin to view John Hunter in a different light. We have to acknowledge him as not only a brilliant surgeon who longs for complete understanding of the human anatomy, but as a man with an obsession, an obsession that he will go a long distance to quench.

Signed,

Jake Baldwin