2-888-546 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late Duke of Palmella, 1850. Portrait of Portuguese diplomat and statesman Pedro de Sousa Holstein, 1st Duke of Palmela, who '...expired in the midst of his numerous family. He met his approaching fate in a most courageous manner, retaining his faculties to the last; and one of his last requests, before receiving the sacrament and taking leave of his family, was that his body might be opened after death, in order that the real nature of his protracted sufferings should be known and communicated, for the good of humanity, to the eminent medical practitioners whom the Duke had so recently consulted in Paris and London'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.