VOLTAIRE'S BODY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 48, Issue 77, 11 January 1928, Page 7

VOLTAIRE'S BODY

A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY. The old controversy as to whether the bones which rest in Voltaire's tomb at the Pantheon are really those of the great writer or of a monk or gardener has been revived by the discovery beneath the Chateau of Scellieres at Ro-Milly-sur-Sein© of a skeleton which many people" believe to be that of Voltaire, writes the Paris correspondent of the "'Daily Telegraph." Ever_ since 1791, when the .Republicans decided to exhume Voltaire's body from its tomb at Scellieres, and to give it a nobler sepulchre in the Pantheon, there has been some doubt whether the right body was exhumed. When in 1778 Voltaire died, and Christian burial was denied him, his nephew, the Abbe Mignot, caused his embalmed body to be carried to the Abbey of Scellieres, where, according to the legend he buried it in quicklime and placed the body of an old gardener in Voltaire's coffin. Those who doubt authenticity of the Pantheon. remains, therefore, contend that they are those of a gardener of Scellieres Abbey. Their suspicion has been strengthened by the discovery at Scellieres of human remains which had apparently been buried in quicklime and hastily sealed by an amateur hand in a wall beneath ah empty tomb. When this hidden grave was opened* a few days ago most of the bones fell to dust; but doctors who have examined the remains of the skull found 1 it bore a remarkable resemblance to that of Voltaire. It had a very prominent chin and other characteristics of the great writer's head, and was clearly tho skull of an old man. The question now is whether the remains in the Pantheon can be authenticated without a re-opening of the jtomb there. If the Pantheon skeleton is really that of Voltaire then the skull must be in two parts, for both his brain i and heart were removed before his body was embalmed, and the heart is j now' preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale. Much ink will be spilled over this controversy before it is laid to rest for another spell. It was raised first in 1791, and again in 1897, when the supposed remains of Voltaire were exhumed at the Pantheon for official identification. The report for that ceremony does not mention the capital point as to whether the skull was entire or in two parts, and so the whole question remains as obscure as it was then.