Descartes' Bones (33 page)

“The Old World imagined”:
Commager,
Empire of Reason,
p. xi.

He had a face that could best:
Information on Lenoir and the Museum of French Monuments comes from portions of a doctoral dissertation on Lenoir by Jennifer Carter; correspondence with Carter; Christopher Greene's “Alexandre Lenoir and the Musée des monuments français during the French Revolution”; Lenoir's own
Description historique et chronologique
and
Notice historique;
Louis Courajod's
Alexandre Lenoir
; Guy Cogeval and Gilles Genty's
La logique de l'inaltérable;
and the three-volume
Statistique monumentale de Paris,
compiled by Lenoir's son Albert.

Some of the parlements:
Quotations and details come from duc de Croy,
Journal inédit du duc de Croy, 1718–1784,
pp. 220–28, and Palmer,
Age of the Democratic Revolution,
pp. 94–96.

atheism was proclaimed:
A reaction to the extremes of the Cult of Reason sprang up in the form of the Cult of the Supreme Being, which followed a deist course in believing that a divine being, which could be understood by reason rather than faith, oversaw the earth, and France in particular. Meanwhile, at a time when priests were forbidden to practice Mass or give Communion, villagers throughout the country took the sacraments up themselves, with a layman officiating. They tried to get around both the death penalty that was instituted for consecrating a host and Catholic qualms about nonpriests trying to effect the transubstantiation of the host by performing what were called white masses, in which the layman performing the mass did not consecrate the bread and wine but rather instilled in them symbolic meaning. All of which shows, perhaps, that even within the hardened core of radical modernity, the French Revolution itself, the three ways of dealing with the intersection of reason and faith that have played out over and over since the time of Descartes—radical secular, moderate, and determinedly religious—manifested themselves.

“he had understood that it must be derived”:
Quoted in Schouls,
Descartes and the Enlightenment,
p. 67.

Lenoir collected feverishly:
Archives du Musée des monuments français,
vol. 2, p. 36.

So meticulous was Lenoir:
Ibid., pp. 27–37.

For Lenoir, Descartes was not only:
Lenoir,
Description,
p. 243.

“I was a real republican”:
Archives du Musée des monuments français,
vol. 1, pp. 16–17.

Lenoir later said:
Lenoir,
Notice historique,
pp. 22–23.

“Your committee of public instruction”:
Chénier,
Rapport fait à la Convention nationale, au nom du Comité d'instruction publique.

“We have thought that a nation”:
Quoted in Bonnet,
Naissance du Panthéon,
p. 315.

“ ' Tis not contrary to reason”:
Hume,
Treatise of Human Nature,
p. 167.

“Man himself must make”:
Kant,
Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone.

“Sepulchral lamps hang”:
Lenoir,
Description,
pp. 93–94; here quoted in Greene, “Alexandre Lenoir,” p. 213.

“The French cherish this famous revolution”:
Lenoir,
Description,
p. v.

“In that calm and peaceful garden”:
Ibid., p. 17; here quoted in Greene, “Alexandre Lenoir,” p. 214.

“No. 507. Sarcophagus, in hard stone”:
Lenoir,
Description,
p. 243.

“the remarkable question”:
The quotation from Chénier and Merciercome from Chénier,
Rapport fait par Marie-Joseph Chénier,
as reprintedin the
Gazette nationale, ou le Moniteur universel
of May 14, 1796, and the chapter “Panthéonisé” that Mercier subsequently wrote in
Le nouveau Paris.

“the 10th of Prairial”:
In their zeal to transform and modernize every aspect of life the revolutionaries streamlined the calendar and renamed the months. Each revolutionary month had thirty days—divided into three ten-day weeks—and the months were named for seasonal changes. Prairial—which ran from mid-May to mid-June—meant essentially “the month the prairies flower.” Of course, it was also imperative to drop the Gregorian dating system, which counted years from the birth of Christ. The new system started time over, with Year One reckoned from the official beginning of the French Republic, in 1792.

“those who have invitations”:
Quoted in Shaw, “Time of Place.”

He tried to resell it:
Lenoir,
Description,
p. 113.

Chapter 4
The Misplaced Head

By the end of the 1600s:
Coleman,
Georges Cuvier,
p. 18.

The greatest of these chemists:
My information on Berzelius comes from Jorpes,
Jac. Berzelius,
and from documents in the collection of the Natural History Museum in Paris.

“it is impossible to describe the bliss”:
Jorpes,
Jac. Berzelius,
p. 42.

As Maurice Crosland:
My account of the Academy of Sciences draws on Crosland, as well as on the academy's own history.

Crosland argues that it was:
It was also true that the French Revolution nudged the academy out of existence for a time; because it had had royal backing, it was seen as a reactionary institution. It returned as the National Institute, then, in 1816, resumed as the Academy of Sciences.

When Franz Mesmer came to Paris:
My account of Mesmer is based on Donaldson, “Mesmer's 1780 Proposal for a Controlled Trial,” and on e-mail correspondence with Donaldson.

He was awed by Paris:
Jorpes,
Jac. Berzelius,
p. 82.

He did, however, discuss these observations:
I infer that discussion was informal because I haven't been able to locate reference to an official report on the topic in the minutes of the academy during this time, whereas there are later official reports on the remains of Descartes.

“has realized all those combinations”:
Cuvier,
Leçons d'anatomie comparée
; quoted in Coleman,
Georges Cuvier,
pp. 171–72.

On April 30, 1821:
Details of this meeting come from Académie des Sciences,
Procès-verbaux des séances.

The two astronomers:
Delambre had actually crossed paths with Descartes' bones at this earlier time; while the revolutionary leaders were debating moving Descartes' remains to the Pantheon, he was performing his metric measurements from the highest point in Paris—the cupola of the Pantheon.

“I have not told the public”:
Quoted in Alder,
Measure of All Things,
p. 6.

Within the first 128 days:
Vass, “Beyond the Grave,” p. 191.

In the 1860s and 1870s:
What follows relies on the Liljewalch collection at the Lund University library, Sweden; Verneau, “Les restes de Descartes”; and Ahlström et al., “Cartesius' Kranium.” I infer that Lilje-walch began to chart Descartes' skull in the 1860s and 1870s from the dates found in his notes: the latest dates for which he recorded notes are 1869 and 1872.

He became the object of affection:
My miniportrait of Nordenflycht comes from Stålmarck,
Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht,
and from the Web site of Uppsala University.

another Swedish devotee:
My account of Sparrman's career relies on Beaglehole,
Life of Captain James Cook,
and Sparrman,
Voyage to the Cape of Good Hope.

The story sounded quite fascinating:
Quoted in Ahlström et al., “Cartesius' Kranium,” p. 35.

Besides reporting anatomical particularities:
What follows comes from Ahlström et al., “Cartesius' Kranium.”

“the Academy of Sciences received last Monday”:
Berzelius,
Berzelius brev. I,
pp. 76–84.

Chapter 5
Cranial Capacity

Franz Joseph Gall was nothing if not consistent:
My account of Gall and the advent of phrenology comes from Colbert,
Measure of Perfection
; Lanteri-Laura,
Histoire de la phrénologie
; Staum,
Labeling People
; Young,
Mind, Brain, and Adaptation
; Zola-Morgan, “Localization of Brain Function”; and Ackerknecht, “Contributions of Gall.”

“This doctrine concerning the head”:
Quoted in Zola-Morgan, “Localization of Brain Function,” p. 364.

“I frequently quote Descartes”:
Ibid., p. 375.

“Your
faculty”
: Quoted in Young,
Mind, Brain, and Adaptation,
p. 71.

“Each succeeding age”:
Ibid., pp. 71–72.

“Descartes goes off to die”:
Ibid., p. 72.

“Flourens' advocacy of physiological”:
Ibid., pp. 73–74.

“The reason I believe this”:
Adam and Tannery,
Oeuvres,
vol. 3, pp. 19–20.

Descartes had scarcely aired:
My account of mind-body dualism is based in part on Lokhorst, “Descartes and the Pineal Gland.”

“It does not seem to me”:
Adam and Tannery,
Oeuvres,
vol. 3, p. 693; quoted in Lokhorst, “Descartes and the Pineal Gland.”

“For many philosophers”:
Nagel,
View from Nowhere,
pp. 7–8.

“Although there is a connection”:
Ibid., p. 4.

“we cannot expect a physiological”:
Académie des Sciences,
Procès-verbaux des séances,
April 25, 1808.

In
Lessons in Comparative Anatomy
:
Cuvier,
Leçons d'anatomie comparée,
lesson 8, p. 7.

“The Negro race”:
Cuvier,
Le règne animal,
p. 95.

Wagner identified the root:
Hagner, “Skulls, Brains, and Memorial Culture,” p. 210.

“This preference is without doubt”:
Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris,
1861, p. 139.

“In general, the brain is larger”:
Quoted in Pearce, “Louis Pierre Gratiolet,” p. 263.

“One can thus affirm”:
Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris,
1861, p. 428.

“If it is permitted”:
The account of Gratiolet's adventure with Cuvier's hat is found in the
Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris,
1861, p. 428. I have also relied on the retelling of it in Gould,
Panda's Thumb,
and in Schiller,
Paul Broca.

“This is one of the most beautiful types”:
Bulletins de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris,
1861, p. 70.

“Monsieur Gratiolet . . . has said”:
Ibid., p. 71.

“Our colleague Monsieur Gratiolet”:
Ibid., pp. 164–65.

“the circumstances of the death of Descartes”:
Ibid., pp. 224–25.

“However, when I expressed this opinion”:
Ibid., pp. 238–39.

“Race is a social concept”:
“Do Races Differ? Not Really, Genes Show,”
New York Times,
August 22, 2
000
.

“In new studies and reviews”:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/faculty/ rushton_res.htm
.

“inherently gloomy”:
Times Online,
October 17, 2007;
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2677098.ece
.

Chapter 6
Habeas Corpus

The members received a report:
Académie des Sciences,
Comptes rendus,
September 23, 1912.

“Great turmoil”:
Verneau, “Les restes de Descartes.”

“This communication arouses”:
Journal des débats politiques et littéraires,
September 25, 1912.

“One knew that the great philosopher”:
Gazette de France,
September 23, 1912.

“Every hypothesis was allowed”:
Verneau, “Les restes de Descartes.”
212 “with all the respect due”:
Perrier, “Sur le crâne dit ‘de Descartes.' ”
212 “They talked about it”:
Cabanès, “Les tribulations posthumes de Descartes.”

The panel was found:
Information on Paul Richer and his encounter with the skull comes from Richer, “Sur l'identification du crâne supposé de Descartes,”
Physiologie artistique,
and
L'art et la médicine
; “Le crâne de Descartes,”
Le Soir,
January 21, 1913; “Sketch Identifies Skull of Descartes,”
New York Times,
January 26, 1913; and Comar,
Mémoires de mon crâne.

“Sketch Identifies Skull of Descartes”:
New York Times,
January 26, 1913.

“The Skull of Descartes Is Authentic”:
Le Figaro,
January 21, 1913.

“Descartes was internationally mourned”:
Slive,
Frans Hals,
vol. 1, p. 164.

“The proposal to transfer the ashes”:
“Pantheon Awaits Descartes Ashes When Discovered.”

“Where are the remains of Descartes?”:
Le Temps,
December 17, 1927.

Once this was realized, the matter was dropped:
To be precise, there was one recent attempt to authenticate the remains. In 2005, Bernard Cartier, a retired French medical doctor and historian of French science who in the course of doing research on Paul Richer became infected with a similar Cartesian doubt, had the notion to verify Richer's methods using the most modern standard: to dig up the remains at St.-Germain-des-Prés and to perform DNA tests on them, as well as on the skull at the Museé de l'homme. Cartier received official authorization from the permanent secretary of the French National Academy of Medicine “to study regarding the remains of Descartes, at the museum and at the church of St.-Germain des Prés, the feasibility of an investigation into their authenticity.”He contacted the appropriate authorities and received replies from the office of the mayor of Paris and the Prefecture of Police describing the translation to the church as, for these officials, adequate proof of authenticity, noting that the tomb was sealed with stone and cement, suggesting the difficulties of jackhammering into an ancient abbey, and urging Cartier, politely, decisively, to let it rest.