'Godless' founder of utilitarianism had severe dental problems and was in 'excruciating pain,' CT scans of his severed head reveal
(Image credit: Jim Dyson/Getty Images) "Godless" philosopher Bentham wrote about his dental problems several times, Davidson said, but it is not clear if he understood that he also had severe arthritis in his lower jaw, which must have made the problems with his teeth much more painful.
- university for over 150 years, suffered from severe dental problems, according to X-ray scans of his skull.
- His severed head was badly disfigured during an attempt to preserve it with sulfuric acid, so a wax reconstruction based on paintings and death masks was attached to the body.
- Bentham's real head was displayed at the feet of the clothed skeleton that had a lifelike wax head; the real head's eyes were replaced with highly detailed glass eyes, which can be seen in the scans.
The CT scans of the real head show that Bentham had dental damage and jaw arthritis, and that his brain had been removed before it was preserved—although some of his dura mater, a layer of connective tissue that covers the brain and spinal cord, was preserved.
- Davidson said the brain extraction was done to keep with Bentham's instructions that his head be mummified in the same way as Māori heads, which had their brains removed.
- The scans revealed that Bentham was missing many teeth and had advanced arthritis in his lower jaw when he died of natural causes at the age of 84.
- His most famous idea was the panopticon in 1791, a ring-shaped prison with one warden to watch all of the prisoners, which he proposed as a humane alternative to Australia's penal colonies.
- After Bentham died in 1832, his remains were fashioned into an auto-icon — a supposed replica of himself — to memorialize him in the way a tombstone might, Davidson said.
- According to UCL lore, the real head was stolen in 1975 and held ransom for a few days by rivals from King's College London, after which it was locked away.
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