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.
There are something like thirty-one wars: http://www.humansecuritybrief.info/.
“the circumstances of that time”: Archives du Musée des monuments français, vol. 2, p. 298.
“I pray you, Monsieur”: Adam and Tannery, Oeuvres, vol. 12, pp. 624–25.
“I hasten to respond to the letter”: Ibid., pp. 625–27.
“to the southern end of the nave”: Ibid., p. 602.
Chapter 7 A Modern Face
He describes his normal work: Harashima, “The Concealing Face, the Nameless Face.”
“a symbol of homo sapiens”: Interview with the author.
The teeth—in particular the wisdom teeth: Information about the skull and the exhibit comes from the exhibit catalog and from interviews and e-mail exchanges with Hisao Baba.
“Descartes laid the foundations”: Watson, Cogito, Ergo Sum, p. 3.
One bright winter day: My information about Hirsi Ali comes largely from her autobiography, Infidel, and from my own interview with her.
“The age which venerated reason”: Cassirer, Philosophy of the Enlightenment,p. xii.
“(1) man is not natively depraved”: Becker, Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers, pp. 102–03.
“Western culture is also fundamentalist”: Schlaffer, “Holiday from the Enlightenment.”
“We distrust anything”: Hitchens, God Is Not Great, pp. 5–8.
“we are at war with Islam”: Van Bakel, “The Trouble Is the West.”
Epilogue
But a few years ago: Van de Ven, “Quelques données nouvelles sur Helena Jans.”
“A troop of theologians”: Adam and Tannery, Oeuvres, vol. 5, pp. 15–16.
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