or resurrection-man, -cove, -woman, subs. phr. (old: now rare).—1. A body-snatcher. Whence RESURRECTION-RIG = body-snatching.—PARKER, GROSE, and VAUX.
1814. SCOTT, Guy Mannering, lvi. RESURRECTION-WOMEN, who had promised to procure a child’s body for some young surgeons.
1821. P. EGAN, Life in London, II. i. The slavey and her master—the surgeon and the RESURRECTION-MAN—… they are “all there.”
1859. DICKENS, Tale of Two Cities, II. xiv. “Father,” said Young Jerry, “what’s a RESURRECTION MAN?”… “Oh, father, I should so like to be a RESURRECTION MAN when I’m quite growed up.”
1862. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, IV. 26. Those who steal dead bodies—as the RESURRECTIONISTS.
1865. G. MACDONALD, Alec Forbes of Howglen, lxvii. The RESURRECTIONISTS were at their foul work, and the graveyard, the place of repose, was itself no longer a sanctuary!
1896. J. B. BAILEY, Diary of a RESURRECTIONIST, vii. The information concerning the RESURRECTION MEN is very scattered. Idem, p. 137. He continued in the RESURRECTIONIST business up to the time of the passing of the Anatomy Act. Et passim.
