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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 January 2009
It is a great privilege to have been invited to speak on this occasion. I shall not talk about Janet Semple's life, since I did not know Janet Semple well. I first came across her work when the Oxford University Press sent me a copy of her Ph.D. thesis, asking for my opinion as to its publishability. I groaned—yet another study of the panopticon! I opened it, started reading—and read it straight through. It was so clear, insightful, powerful in its interpretation and beautifully written. I am delighted to see that it has appeared as Bentham's Prison. I was, at a later stage, equally pleased to be involved in persuading Janet to publish some of her research on Bentham's medical and health interests. I shall not try to evaluate her work today. I think I might best honour her by trying to reflect upon some of the wider issues that surround Bentham's concerns with prisons and hospitals—issues raised by her work.
The Janet Semple Memorial Lecture delivered at University College London on 26 November 1993. This lecture is printed as delivered. Since it was intended as a general discussion of issues rather than a thorough, scholarly survey, I have annotated the paper very lightly, doing little more than identifying works and authors mentioned therein.
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