2 minute read
Jeremey Bentham 20
JeremeyJeremey
As the father of modern utilitarianism, Jeremy Bentham believed that his usefulness didn’t have to end with his death. In his last will and testament, Bentham instructed that his body should be dissected, and his preserved corpse displayed, and occasionally taken out to socialize when his colleagues assembled. And since 1850, University College London has been home to what’s left of Jeremy Bentham’s corpse. And while Bentham presents an odd but relatively innocuous figure in the halls of UCL, his curb appeal is largely because he’s not quite all there! You see it’s his head.
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That’s not his real head
Bentham left instructions with Doctor Thomas Southwood Smith on how to create his auto-icon, after a public lecture that took place over his corpse. During Bentham’s dissection, his skin was stripped from his bones and his ‘soft parts’ were placed inside labeled glass jars, like wine decanters. His skeleton was then articulated with copper wire, so that he could be moved and arranged like old, white man Gumby, and dressed in one of his black suits. Then the suit was stuffed with cotton, straw, and hay, and his abdominal cavity contained moth repellents, naphthalene and
Old white man gumby
But the piece de resistance of the whole shebang was Jeremy Bentham’s head. Well, it was supposed to be at least. As outlined in his will, Bentham intended for his head to be mummified as a Mokomokai, as practiced by the Maoris of New Zealand. The way the Maoris did it was to remove the corpse’s brain and eyes, boil the head, then smoke it over a fire and dry it in the sun. But when Smith was done, Bentham’s head wasn’t quite transformed into the triumphant Mokomokai he’d envisioned.
That’s not his real head
Placing bright blue glass eyes in Bentham’s head, the very glass eyes Bentham had carried around on his person for six months before he died, just in case, Dr. Smith suspended the head over sulfuric acid under glass, and used a vacuum to remove the moisture from the head. The results were, not good! Rendered discolored, leathery, sunken, and craggy, Bentham’s head, with its spooky blue eyes gazing out at you has been described as ghastly. Pocket
Eyeballs
Unwilling to put the horrific head on Bentham’s body, Smith had a wax recreation made and placed atop the skeleton. Bentham’s actual head was displayed between the autoicon’s feet until repeated pranks involving the stealing of the head caused the head to be placed in a box under lock and key. 185 years after his death, Jeremy Bentham’s remains continue to fascinate and yes, bring happiness, to a great number of people. While his autoicon didn’t quite turn out as planned, it’s that added layer of a morbid mishap that makes Jeremy Bentham an iconic corpse.
