(AmericanProsperity.com) – There is a book in the Harvard Houghton Library that was bound by human skin and has sat in their library for years now, but they are making a change and removing it from the shelves of the Harvard Library.
The book, Arsène Houssaye’s “Des destinées de l’âme,” was published over one hundred years ago. It was bound by human skin by French Physician Dr. Ludovic Bouland and the book has been in the University for ninety years.
The book is said to be a reflection of life after death, and it has a handwritten note in it from Bouland that says, “A book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.”
Dr. Bouland was said to have bound the book with human skin that he took without consent from a deceased female patient. The patient was at the French Psychiatric Hospital where he worked.
Paul Needham, who is a scholar of early modern books, has said that there has been a ten-year call to remove the binding. However, an open letter that Needham co-authored was published as an advertisement and he believes that this is what made them finally come out and talk about it.
Needham said, about the book, “I first raised the question with the library almost 10 years ago, in June 2014. And I requested they should have the human skin respectfully removed and given a decent burial.”
He continued, “I think that the open letter is what finally moved them really to take action and make a statement because until yesterday we have not gotten the university to say a single word about binding in almost 10 years.”
Ten years ago, the University came out and publicly said that the binding was made out of human skin. People could still get the book “regardless of their reason for wishing to consult it,” said the University.
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