Judge Quotes (2)
Only the doctor and the judge have the right to inflict the death penalty without receiving the same.
— Philemon
'The Sicilian.' Fragment preserved by Stobaeus, Florigelium. In Gustave Jules Witkowski, The Evil that Has Been Said of Doctors (1889), 4-5
The republic has no need of scientists [savants].
Apocryphal remark; supposedly the judge's reply to Lavoisier when he appealed at his trial for more time to complete his scientific work.
Apocryphal remark; supposedly the judge's reply to Lavoisier when he appealed at his trial for more time to complete his scientific work.
Cited in H. Guerlac, 'Lavoisier', in Charles Gillispie (ed.), Dictionary of Scientific Biography (1973), 8, 85. However, Jean-Pierre Poirier and Rebecca Balinski, in Lavoisier (), 379, says about the remark that 'It is now known that the statement is apocryphal' [meaning it is of questionable authenticity], and that 'Jean Noel Halle, in the name of the Advisory Board for Arts and Trades, had sent the judges a long report detailing the services Lavoisier had rendered to the Republic, but Coffinal [president of the Revolutionary Tribunal] had refused to acknowledge it.' Thus, Lavoisier was guillotined on 8 May 1794. Coffinhal was himself guillotined on 6 Aug 1794.
