Book Found In Harvard University Library Is Bound With Human Skin

 

It’s reading matter not for the faint of heart. Experts at Harvard said this week that they have confirmed that a 19th-century book housed in one of the university’s libraries is bound in human skin. Scientists and conservators carried out a series of tests on Houghton Library’s copy of the French writer Arsene Houssaye’s “Des destinees de l’ame” and concluded with 99.9% confidence that the binding material came from a human. According to the library, Houssaye presented the text, described as “a meditation on the soul and life after death,” to one of his friends, a book-loving medical doctor, in the mid-1880s. The recipient, Dr. Ludovic Bouland, bound the book “with skin from the unclaimed body of a female mental patient who had died of a stroke,” the library said. Bouland left a note in the volume explaining what he had done. “A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering,” he wrote.

 
It’s the human skin renaissance! Just like neon, it’s back in style baby! Told you guys human skin was a hot commodity, a valuable investment for the future. Is there anything I don’t do? Just firing out great investment advice day in and day out. I hope someone paid attention. It’s like the 1849 gold rush all over again. And as usual, I’m ahead of the curve. Playing skin when you’re all playing polycotton.
 

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