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ANY takers for Napoleon’s penis?

As reported, John K Lattimer, the owner of Napoleon’s penis has died.

In his pomp, Lattimer, of Englewood, N.J., had been employed as chairman of urology at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

And he leaves behind not only the penis of the great French leader, with the acute short-man syndrome, but other artifacts that anyone would be proud to place on the mantlepiece. Lattimer possessed Lincoln’s blood-stained collar and Hermann Göring’s cyanide ampoule.

But it is Napoleon’s little coup d’etat that holds pride of place in the collection.

The penis is said to have been removed from the greater Napoleon by a priest named Vignali, who administered last rites to the exiled French emperor. One Francesco Antommarchi is said to have removed Napoleon’s heart and stomach.

Now Lattimer is departed, believed intact, we wonder what should become of the great French member.

It has been on display before. When A.S.W. Rosenbach owned it, it was placed on a bed of blue morocco and velvet at the Museum of French Art in New York. Reports are that it resembled “something looking like a maltreated strip of buckskin shoelace or shriveled eel”. For people who wonder, the organ has also been described “one inch long and resembling a grape”.

While not as extensive as the 30-centimeter preserved penis of Grigory Rasputin, displayed at the Russian museum of erotica in St. Petersburg, Napoleon’s penis knew a rare power.

Other famous people who moved from life to the pickling jar are:

John Wilkes’ Booth - see the man who killed President Abraham Lincoln Booth’s spinal column at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, D.C.

Albert Einstein’s - Bits of Brain at Princeton Hospital

Saint Francis Xavier - The Spanish missionary can be seen in Cochin, India (half of left hand), Malacca, Malaysia (other half of left hand), Rome (arm), pix ‘n ‘ mix (Goa, india)

Saint Catherine of Siena - Expeicne the wonder of the woman’s head and finger (San Domenico Church in Siena, Italy)

Oliver Cromwell - Hanged after death, the revolutionary’s head was seasoned on a pike in Westminster for some years and then sold to Josiah Henry Wilkinson, and buried in 1960.

Jermey Bentham - After his death, the philosopher and jurist was preserved. His ‘Auto-Icon’ sits in a wooden cabinet, at the end of the South Cloisters of the main building of Univerity College London.

So what next for Napoleon’s penis. Shoud it be put on display? Become the inspiration for a new martial aid sold in sex shops around the Pigalle, Paris?

And should all those offcuts from the celebrity set be retrieved and pickled in a museum high in the Hollywood Hills?

Answers on a severed flaps of skin to the to Joan Rivers Contest, c/o Anorak Towers…

Posted: 17th, May 2007 | In: Strange But True. Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0