The great men who have marked history occasionally reappear from the past according to scientific findings. After the revelation on intestinal worms of the monarch Richard III by the University of Cambridge, it is the turn of the French to take an interest in the health of a historical figure. Maximilien Robespierre, Revolutionary guillotined on July 28, 1794 in Paris at the age of 36, would have suffered from several diseases which could probably have caused his downfall if the scaffold had not preceded them.
Forensic scientist Philippe Charlier from the Laboratory of Medical and Forensic Anthropology at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin, near Paris, who has already reconstructed the face of Henri IV, made a medical diagnosis, 219 years after the death of the politician.
The doctor examined the testimonies of his contemporaries as well as two death masks of Robespierre, one kept at the Granet Museum, in Aix-en-Provence, the other at the National Museum of Natural History, in Paris. From these observations, he reconstructed the face of the Republican in 3 D.
The stunningly realistic result shows a figure marked by scars characteristic of smallpox, an infectious disease of viral origin.
Sarcoidosis, a disease later recognized
But another disease seems to have affected Robespierre: sarcoidosis, a rare systemic inflammatory disease of unknown cause. It mainly affects the lungs, lymph nodes, joints, skin, eyes, heart, nervous system and kidneys. What about Robespierre? “[Il] presents almost all the signs of diffuse sarcoidosis: ophthalmological and cutaneous involvement, both in the legs and in the face, and also involvement of the respiratory mucous membranes, “describes the specialist. According to the researcher, this diagnosis may explain “the permanent fatigue, asthenia, from which Robespierre may have suffered, who was on the verge of exhaustion in the last months of his life”.
Sarcoidosis was discovered in 1877 by a British physician, Sir Jonathan Hutchinson. We understand better why the personal doctor of Robespierre Joseph Souberbielle could not precisely identify him in his time.