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editLittle is known about the origins of this practice, although there is some unfounded speculation that it is loosely derived from or perhaps inspired by ancient Aegean notions about bees' ability to bridge the natural world with the afterlife.[1]
- Jeremy Bentham
Bentham's body is on public display at UCL in a wooden cabinet, at the end of the South Cloisters of the UCL Main Building; he had directed in his will that he wanted his body to be preserved as a lasting memorial to the university.[2] This 'Auto-Icon' has become famous. Unfortunately, when it came to his head, the preservation process went disastrously wrong and left it badly disfigured. A wax head was made to replace it; the actual head is now kept in the college vaults. It is often claimed that King's College London students stole the head and played football with it. Although the head was indeed stolen, the football story is a myth.[3] Other myths associated with Bentham and the College include that the box containing his remains is wheeled into senior college meetings, and that he is then listed in minutes as "present but not voting"; or that he has a vote on the College council, but only when the vote is split, and that he always votes in favour of the motion.
On 8 June 1832, two days after his death, invitations were distributed to a select group of friends, and on the following day at 3 p.m., Southwood Smith delivered a lengthy oration over Bentham's remains in the Webb Street School of Anatomy & Medicine in Southwark, London. The printed oration contains a frontispiece with an engraving of Bentham's body partly covered by a sheet.[4]
- Afterward, the skeleton and head were preserved and stored in a wooden cabinet called the "Auto-icon", with the skeleton padded out with hay and dressed in Bentham's clothes. Originally kept by his disciple Thomas Southwood Smith,[5] it was acquired by University College London in 1850. It is normally kept on public display at the end of the South Cloisters in the main building of the college; however, for the 100th and 150th anniversaries of the college, and in 2013,[6] it was brought to the meeting of the College Council, where it was listed as "present but not voting".[7]
- Bentham had intended the Auto-icon to incorporate his actual head, mummified to resemble its appearance in life. Southwood Smith's experimental efforts at mummification, based on practices of the indigenous people of New Zealand and involving placing the head under an air pump over sulfuric acid and drawing off the fluids, although technically successful, left the head looking distastefully macabre, with dried and darkened skin stretched tautly over the skull.[4] The auto-icon was therefore given a wax head, fitted with some of Bentham's own hair. The real head was displayed in the same case as the auto-icon for many years, but became the target of repeated student pranks. It is now locked away securely.[8]
- Gustave Courbet's ""The Desparate Man"" (""Le Désespéré"") and ""The Man Made Mad with Fear""
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References
edit- ^ Kite, W. (1889). "Telling the Bees". The Magazine of American History with Notes and Queries. 21: 523.
- ^ "Auto-Icon". UCL Bentham Project. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ "Fake News: Demystifying Jeremy Bentham". UCL Culture. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
- ^ a b Rosen, F. (2014) [2004]. "Bentham, Jeremy". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/2153. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Marmoy, C.F.A. (1958). "The 'Auto-Icon' of Jeremy Bentham at University College, London". Medical History. 2 (2). University College London: 77–86. doi:10.1017/s0025727300023486. PMC 1034365. PMID 13526538. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 3 March 2007.
It seems that the case with Bentham's body now rested in New Broad Street; Southwood Smith did not remove to 38 Finsbury Square until several years later. Bentham must have been seen by many visitors, including Charles Dickens.
- ^ Smallman, Etan (12 July 2013). "Bentham's corpse attends UCL board meeting". Metro. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
- ^ "Chemical History of UCL". chem.ucl.ac.uk. September 20, 2010. Retrieved 2018-06-12.
- ^ "UCL Bentham Project". University College London. Archived from the original on 12 November 2010. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
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