kristoff wrote: Tue Aug 17, 2010 3:24 pm But a lot of difference to the one being stuffed and mounted...
The Utilitarian philosopher, Jeremy Bentham, left his entire estate to London University to support a department of Philosophy. The terms of his bequest included the provision that his corpse be stuffed, mounted sitting in a chair as in life leaning slightly forward with an interested smile on his face. In that attitude, his friends and disciples could gather annually sit around him and remember the causes for which utilitarians fight. For years, London University honored the bequest, seating Jeremy in a glass case at the entrance to the Philosophy department where he remained after it was no longer necessary to move him annually to one of the lecture halls (the friends and disciples having long since passed away); however over time and aging the tanned skin contracted and the interested smile turned into a ghastly leer pulled back to reveal the skull beneath and finally, Mme Toussaut was called in, a wax head fashioned, and Jeremy's real head was removed and put in a discreet black box underneath his chair. And there he sits to this day with a waxen smile on his artificial lips.
