Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Jeremy Bentham: Still Dead, Still Sitting Pretty

Jeremy Bentham, the great English legal philosopher and political radical, died in 1832. In his will he directed that his skeleton be preserved, "wearing his usual clothes and sitting on his favorite chair," with his embalmed head placed on top. The head was damaged and replaced with one fashioned from wax, but Jeremy is still said to attend an occasional council meeting at University College London, where he is recorded as "present but not voting."

His photo comes from The Telegraph slide show, London's secret historical treasures – a fine appetizer for anyone planning to be in London at Christmastime.

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