The month of October is often focused on the odd and disturbing. I happened to stumble across the historical account of Andrew Ure and thought the story would fit well within the oddities of the month.
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| Welcome Library, London |
Andrew Ure, born in Glasgow, Scotland, achieved great success in many areas. He became a physician and served as an army surgeon, but his great love was chemistry and physics. He served on the Faculty Board at the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons in Glasgow and was well loved for his interesting lectures. He spoke often on chemistry and mechanics. He also had a love of geology and was considered an expert from the number of texts he devoured and the information he absorbed.
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| Louis Figueir (author) |
One of Ure’s fascinations had to do with the reanimation of the body after death. He began some experiments which he later incorporated in his lectures. In 1818, he lectured on the galvanic experiments he’d been conducting. He brought in the body of a murderer and thief, Matthew Clydesdale to demonstrate his findings. Clydsedale had been executed by hanging and left hanging for an hour. Ure wanted to demonstrate the by stimulating certain nerves with voltage he could bring the person back to life.
These experiments were allowed at that time on the bodies of condemned murderers who had been put to death. The thought of the day was that these men were further tormented for their crimes by being experimented on and that would be all right.
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| Early depiction of Frankenstein |
When Ure sent voltage through the body, Clydesdale’s muscles responded with shuddering which looked to the audience as if he were shivering from the cold. Ure made the body do different movements by touching nerves in other areas. When he touched the hip, one of his assistant was nearly thrown to the floor by the violence of the muscular reaction. He was also able to manipulate the facial expressions, giving the impression Clydesdale was experiencing emotion. Many of the onlookers had to leave the room they were so horrified.
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| Mary Shelley By Richard Rothwell |
One of the interesting side notes I read while studying Ure, was that Mary Shelley heard of his experiments and was fascinated by the thought of reanimating the dead. This sparked her writing of Frankenstein, which released in 1818 about the same time Ure was doing the lecture on Clydesdale. Shelley’s book and Ure’s experiments caused quite a stir in that era. The original Frankenstein made no mention of using electricity to reanimate the body, but in her rewrite in 1831, Shelley added that part to the text.
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| Frankenstein frontispiece By Theodore Von Holst |
The origin of life and scientific experiments have long been interesting to the public even to the point of excusing tests on the living in the name of science. Ure did not use the living in his demonstrations, only the dead, but some of his tests were horrific. He also inspired other scientists to experiment on animals and humans. Shelley’s depiction of Frankenstein brings out that nature of scientific curiosity and vividly describes human nature in the events that occur in her book.
Have you ever read Mary Shelley’s, Frankenstein? What are your thoughts on experimenting with the dead? ((I realize that some people sign over their bodies before they die, but am referring to those who haven’t.) Have you ever heard of Andrew Ure?
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Nancy J Farrier is an award-winning, New York Times best-selling author who lives in Southern Arizona in the Sonoran Desert. She loves the Southwest with its interesting historical past. When Nancy isn’t writing, she loves to read, do needlecraft, play with her cats and dog, and spend time with her family. You can read more about Nancy and her books on her website: nancyjfarrier.com.
