But it all got a bit more complicated than that. Human heads are hard to preserve while still remaining unhorrific, and despite the best research and efforts of Bentham’s pal and dissector Dr Southwood Smith, his severed head went weird and purple and gross during the preservation process.

It was relegated to a wooden box, and a lifelike wax head was placed atop Bentham's fully dressed skeleton instead, because no one wants to see a weird purple gross head.