Page:Bills of Mortality.pdf/19

 One point more may be mentioned. It will be noticed that a discrepancy appears in the Bills between the number of executions and the burials of executed persons. Most of the bodies unaccounted for went to the dissecting-rooms, in pursuance of the sentence "that you be hanged by the neck until you are dead, and that your body shall afterwards bc dissected and anatomized." The fate of the bodies of traitors is indicated by the following sentence (vide case of Walcot I. Eng. Rep, p. 89): "Quod … ibidem super bigam ponatur, et abinde usque ad furcas dc [Tyburn] trahatur, et ibidem per eollum suspendatur, et vivens ad terram prosternatur, et quod secreta membra ejus amputentur, et interiora sua extra ventrem suum capiantur et in ignem ponantur, et ibidem ipso vivente comburantur, et quod caput ejus amputetur, quodque corpus ejus in quatuor partes dividatur, et illo ponantur ubi Dominus Rex eas assignare voluit." The places usually selected were the gates of cities, and in London, London Bridge and Westminster Hall. This sentence was not completely abolished until 1870.

The first of the Registrar-General's reports under the Births and Deaths Registration Act of 1836 was published in 1839, and thereafter Bills of Mortality cease to have any interest. They continued to appear, however, in an abbreviated form until 1850, when the yearly Bills were abolished, and in 1859 the making and returning of the weekly Bills was ordered by the company to be discontinued. From ﬁrst to last, the Bills had covered a period of over three centuries.