Over the course of history, humans have retained various aspects of themselves. Mummies in Egypt are a good example. But it isn’t just royals who have had their organs preserved; many prominent people, like these fine gentlemen, have had their organs preserved over the years.
1. A museum houses Galileo’s fingers, teeth, and vertebra.
The thumb and middle finger of Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei are on display at the Museum of the History of Science in Florence, Italy. When his body was being moved from one tomb to another in 1737, the digits apparently snapped off. People flock to the museum to see his teeth and a vertebra, and to get a closer look at the man – literally.
2. Albert Einstein’s eyes and brain.
Pathologist Thomas Stoltz Harvey performed Einstein’s autopsy just hours after his death in 1955, removing and dissecting his brain into 240 fragments before encasing the parts in a plastic-like substance called collodion. Several of these brain blocks are located at the National Museum of Health and Medicine in Washington, while the others are at the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia, thanks to a sequence of events. The pathologist also removed Einstein’s eyes, which are assumed to be in a safe deposit box in New York City.
3. Napoleon Bonaparte’s p*nis.
Although the French Emperor died in 1821, his p*nis has lived on and traveled well beyond that year. Napoleon’s p*nis was reportedly removed by an English surgeon who autopsied him, and it was then passed on from generation to generation. It passed through the hands of an Italian priest in the nineteenth century, a London bookseller in the twentieth, and an American urologist in the twentieth, who paid $2900 for it in 1969 and kept it under his bed in a suitcase until his death in 2007. Napoleon’s p*nis is said to have been among the items sold at the urologist’s collection auction in 2016.
4. A test tube contains Thomas Edison’s last breath.
While this one is a bit of a stretch, it still exists. According to legend, Henry Ford requested that Thomas Edison’s son Charles sit by his father’s bedside during his final moments and place a test tube close to his mouth to catch his final breath. It was then given to Ford, Thomas’ business partner, by Charles. It is now on display at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan.
5. A pawn shop has Pancho Villa’s trigger finger for sale.
This rebel general was assassinated in 1923 after his car was ambushed and he was shot by a squad of riflemen. He was one of the most famous leaders of the Mexican Revolution. However, at Dave’s Pawn Shop in El Paso, Texas, a detached and mummified appendage pretending to be his finger is for sale. The owner of the establishment declines to vouch for its authenticity, leaving us to speculate.
You have to ask if these guys were aware of what was about to happen to their bodies.
