ABSTRACT

301On 5 May 1749, the press announced the arrival in London of ‘the famous Sieur Rocquet’, a Parisian surgeon, who offered a variety of medical services to the wealthy. According to an account published in the Scots Magazine, he charged 1l. 1s for ‘cutting off a thigh (leg included)’, or 10s 6d for removing a leg below the knee. To remove an arm close to the shoulder (including wrist, hand, fingers and thumb) would cost another 1l. 1s, while a single hand, foot, thumb, toe or finger could be removed for 5 shillings. To the dismembered, Rocquet sold ‘wholesale or retale [sic] all sorts of legs, arms, eyes, noses, or teeth, made in the genteelest manner’, as worn by ‘persons of rank in France’. 1