Harvard University has apologized for holding onto a French book from the 1880s for nearly a century, whose pages were bound together using human skin, confirming that the skin has been removed from the book. The administration of the libraries at the oldest university in the United States stated in a press release distributed on Thursday that they "have removed the human skin from the binding of a copy of Arsen Houser's 'Des destinées de l'âme' (published in the 1880s) that was kept in the Houghton Library."
Harvard's library administration acknowledged that this matter "touches on the dignity of the individual whose remains were used to bind the book." They added, "We apologize to those who were harmed." The university, which was established in 1636 in Cambridge, a suburb of Boston in the northeastern United States, expressed regret that these "practices do not align with the ethical standards we uphold."
Arsen Houser (1814-1896) was a French writer, journalist, literary critic, and collector, and his work "Des destinées de l'âme" is considered a reflection and contemplation on life after death. In 2014, Harvard’s library administration revealed following scientific tests that the book, which it acquired in 1934 from a former student from the early 20th century, was bound in human skin. The university explained ten years ago that the French writer had presented his book to a book-loving doctor named Ludovic Boulan (1839-1933), who conceived the idea of binding the work in the skin of a mentally ill patient who died suddenly. Harvard confirmed that there was no consent from the patient for this procedure.
