~ The Ladies and Gentlemen’s Pocket Companion of Etiquette and Manners,  by an American, c. 1820-1852

History Geek Note: During the early 19th century there was a shortage of cadavers for medical students (or “Anatomists”) to dissect. Dissection was illegal in many places and often the only bodies available were those of executed criminals. This lead to the lucrative business of the resurrectionists who would steal bodies from fresh graves and sell them to doctors in need of cadavers.* Adding to the general horror of resurrectionists were cases like the infamous Burke and Hare of Scotland who decided to cut out the tedious grave-digging part of the equation and make their own corpses the old-fashioned way. All this from a discussion of vests - isn’t history fun?

*Also, they apparently had bad taste in vests.