★ Keep up to date with the latest news - subscribe to the Transcribe Bentham newsletter; Find a new page to transcribe in our list of Untranscribed Manuscripts
29 March ) 1824
9 October )
Having from my earliest youth devoted my mental faculties
to the service of mankind what remains for me is to devote my
body to that same purpose; having with frequently renewed concern
observed the mischievous effects of that wandering of the mind
by which the progress of the art of healing is obstructed, & life
& health are sacrificed to an absurd feeling for unfeeling matter
now therefore in hopes that in setting the first example I may
commence clearing the human mind from so pernicious a prejudice
I do humbly bequeath my body when dead to my friend Doctor
Armstrong of Russell Square lecturer on Physic. to be by him
caused to be anatomised in the most public manner, as bodies
procured for the instruction of students on anatomy are anatomized: & it is my express desire that preparations may in
like manner be made x preserved of the several perishable parts of it
x disposed of according to his discretion & that no part of it
be deposited anywhere in the ground in ceremony.
As to the head & the rest of the skeleton it is my desire
that the head may by preparation after the New Zealand manner
be preserved, & the Entire skeleton with the head above it
& connected with it, be placed in a sitting posture, & made
up into the form of a living body, covered with the most
decent suit of clothes, not being black or grey which I may
happen to leave at my decease.
And whereas it has occurred to me that some of
my friends, in whose opinion my labours in the service of
mankind have not been altogether without success, may, in
the view of giving increase to that success & of cherishing their
mutual harmony, be eventually disposed to meet at a club
in commemoration of my birth & death, my desire is, that
in that case order may be taken by my executor for such my
skeleton seated in an appropriate chair, to be placed, on the occasion
of any such meeting, at one end of the table, after the
Identifier: | JB/009/123/003 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 9.
|
|||
---|---|---|---|
1824-03-29 |
|||
009 |
|||
123 |
|||
003 |
|||
legal document |
3 |
||
recto |
|||
t sweetapple 1838 |
|||
1838 |
|||
letter 3085, vol. 11 |
3424 |
||