The late John K. Lattimer, the military buff and ex-professor and chairman of the urology department at Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, was noted in yesterday’s New York Times as the latest owner of Napoleon’s penis. Check it:


lattimer“Dr. Lattimer, a urologist, could claim a professional interest in Napoleon’s genitalia. Not so its previous owner, the Philadelphia bookseller and collector A. S. W. Rosenbach, who took a ‘Rabelaisian delight’ in the relic, according to his biographer, Edwin Wolf. When Rosenbach put the penis on display at the Museum of French Art in New York, visitors peered into a vitrine to see something that looked like a maltreated shoelace, or a shriveled eel.”

Concludes the columnist who made these observations: “it’s time to let Napoleon’s penis rest in peace.”

Thanks to CJS for the tip.