Robert Knox (4 September 1791 – 20 December 1862) was a Scottish anatomist and ethnologist best known for his involvement in the Burke and Hare murders. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Knox eventually partnered with anatomist and former teacher John Barclay and became a lecturer on anatomy in the city, where he introduced the theory of transcendental anatomy. However, Knox's incautious methods of obtaining cadavers for dissection before the passage of the Anatomy Act 1832 and disagreements with professional colleagues ruined his career in Scotland. Following these developments, he moved to London, though this did not revive his career. Knox's views on humanity gradually shifted over the course of his lifetime, as his initially positive views (influenced by the ideals of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire) gave way to a more pessimistic view. Knox also devoted the latter part of his career to studying and theorising on evolution and ethnology; during this period, he also wrote numerous works advocating scientific racism. His work on the latter further harmed his legacy and overshadowed his contributions to evolutionary theory, which he used to account for racial differences. Life Early life Robert Knox was born in 1791 in Edinburgh's North Richmond Street, the eighth child of Mary (née Scherer) and Robert Knox (d. 1812), a teacher of mathematics and natural philosophy at Heriot's Hospital in Edinburgh. As an infant, he contracted smallpox, which destroyed his left eye and disfigured his face. He was educated at the Royal High School of Edinburgh, where he was remembered as a 'bully' who thrashed his contemporaries "mentally and corporeally". He won the Lord Provost's gold medal in his final year. In 1810, he joined medical classes at the University of Edinburgh. He soon became interested in transcendentalism and the work of Xavier Bichat. He was twice president of the Royal Physical Society, an undergraduate club to which he presented papers on hydrophobia and nosology. The final recorded event of his university years was his just failing the anatomy examination. Knox joined the "extramural" anatomy class of the famous John Barclay. Barclay was an anatomist of the highest distinction, and perhaps the greatest anatomical teacher in Britain at that time. Redoubling his efforts, Knox passed competently the second time around. Life abroad Knox graduated from the University of Edinburgh in 1814, with a Latin thesis on the effects of narcotics which was published the following year. He joined the army and